New whistleblower accounts emerge expressing concerns about Trump’s controversial pick to be a Philly-based federal appeals judge

As the Senate prepares to vote on whether to confirm Emil Bove, a controversial Justice Department official and President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney, for a lifetime seat on a Philadelphia-based federal appeals court, new whistleblower accounts have emerged raising questions about Bove’s tenure in Washington.

One came from Whistleblower Aid, a nonprofit that says it helps employees seeking to expose wrongdoing. The organization announced last week that it was representing a former Justice Department attorney who had “lawfully disclosed evidence” to the agency’s inspector general about Bove “actively and deliberately undermining the rule of law.”

The group declined to identify its client, and declined to respond to questions seeking more specifics about the type of evidence the person provided or when they disclosed it.

But in an interview with CNN this weekend, the whistleblower — speaking anonymously — said they provided information to the inspector general in May expressing concerns about how the Justice Department was responding to court orders in an immigration case.

A few weeks after that, in June, another former Justice Department lawyer, Erez Reuveni, filed his own whistleblower complaint containing similar allegations, accusing Bove of saying he was willing to flout judicial orders to fulfill Trump’s mass deportation agenda.

Bove denied those allegations during a confirmation hearing last month before the Senate Judiciary Committee, saying: “I did not suggest that there would be any need to consider ignoring court orders.”

The second new account to emerge in recent days was made public by a group called the Justice Connection, which is made up of former Justice Department employees opposed to the Trump administration’s plans for the agency.

The organization said its whistleblower had “strong evidence that Emil Bove was not truthful to the Senate Judiciary Committee during his confirmation hearing.” It did not provide further details, and a spokesperson declined to elaborate.

Still, a spokesperson for Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the judiciary committee’s ranking Democrat, said Monday that “we’ve reviewed the evidence and it’s concerning. We believe it shows Bove misled the Committee.”

Most Republican senators have continued to support Bove’s candidacy and characterized the questions about his qualifications as part of a coordinated smear campaign. Sen. Chuck Grassley, the Iowa Republican who chairs the Judiciary Committee, said he believed Reuveni’s account was part of a “political hit job” timed for “maximum media splash with minimal substance.”

Spokespeople for Grassley’s office did not immediately respond to questions Monday about the new whistleblower accounts.

Durbin’s spokesperson, Josh Sorbe, said if the account corroborating Reuveni’s concerns proved true, it would be “another damning indictment of a man who should never be a federal judge.”

The complaints against Bove have come as the Senate appeared poised to vote this week on his nomination to fill a vacant seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. The prestigious court handles cases involving Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and the Virgin Islands, and some observers believe the role could serve as a precursor for Trump to eventually nominate Bove to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Senate Democrats have expressed widespread opposition to Bove’s candidacy, with members of the Judiciary Committee walking out of the room when they were asked to vote on advancing his nomination earlier this month.

But Republicans control 53 seats in the Senate, and Bove needs 51 votes to secure his position on the appellate bench. Two GOP senators — Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — indicated last week that they are likely to oppose Bove’s candidacy when it is put up for a final vote.

Bove, currently the principal associate deputy attorney general, previously worked as a criminal defense attorney for Trump, including when Trump was convicted of concealing hush-money payments to a porn star to avoid damaging his 2016 presidential campaign. Bove also previously worked as a federal prosecutor in Manhattan.

During his seven months in Washington this year, he has drawn intense scrutiny over his aggressive efforts to help reshape of the Justice Department in Trump’s image, including by firing prosecutors who secured convictions connected to the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and dismissing a corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

His judicial nomination has been especially controversial, with dozens of former judges and prosecutors signing letters expressing concerns about his fitness for the bench.

The Trump administration, however, has continued to back Bove. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche — who, like Bove, once served as a personal attorney for Trump — said in an op-ed for Fox News earlier this month that Bove was “most capable and principled lawyer I have ever known.”