Trump's Personal Lawyer in the DOJ Now Up for Judgeship Actively Plotted to Disobey and Defy Court Orders Barring Lawless Deportations
Donald Trump appointed his personal lawyer Emil Bove to a top position in the Department of Justice and has now nominated him to be a federal appeals court judge. But a former DOJ lawyer has filed a whistleblower complaint describing Bove’s assault on the courts.
The New York Times sums up the charges:
[Erez] Reuveni’s account … was filed to lawmakers and the Justice Department inspector general on Tuesday, just one day before Mr. Bove is scheduled to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee for a nomination to a federal appeals court. …
In March and early April, the filing states, Mr. Reuveni “became aware of the plans of DOJ leadership to resist court orders that would impede potentially illegal efforts to deport noncitizens, and further became aware of the details to execute those plans.”
Top officials at the Justice Department and the White House sought to defy federal court orders “through lack of candor, deliberate delay and disinformation,” his account states.
“Discouraging clients from engaging in illegal conduct is an important part of the role of a lawyer,” the account says. “Mr. Reuveni tried to do so and was thwarted, threatened, fired and publicly disparaged for both doing his job and telling the truth to the court.” …
A pivotal meeting occurred on March 14, when Mr. Bove, a senior official in the deputy attorney general’s office, spoke bluntly about the administration’s plans.
“Bove stated that DOJ would need to consider telling the courts ‘fuck you’ and ignore any such order,” according to the account. “Mr. Reuveni perceived that others in the room looked stunned, and he observed awkward, nervous glances among people in the room. Silence overtook the room.”
The case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia—in which Reuveni was fired for telling a court the truth—is turning out to be a crucial nexus for the Trump administration’s sins against the constitutional order and rule of law.
The Executive Watch is a project of the Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism, and its flagship publication The UnPopulist, to track in an ongoing way the abuses of the power of the American presidency. It sorts these abuses into five categories: Personal Grift, Political Corruption, Presidential Retribution, Power Consolidation, and Policy Illegality. Click the category of interest to get an overview of all the abuses under it.
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