Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, today issued the following statement after Republicans broke Committee rules to jam through the nomination of Emil Bove and Democrats walked out of the meeting:
“Emil Bove is a person of lawless character. Telling courts ‘f*** you’ is obviously not an attribute we want in someone seeking to be a federal judge. But that’s what Mr. Bove said, and it seems he lied about it to the members of the Judiciary Committee.
“Republicans on the Committee shielded Bove from having to explain his well-documented attempts to cook up a fake criminal investigation and to use an existing criminal case for political leverage over an elected official, among other roundly disqualifying behavior. The result was a hearing that more resembled a rackets hearing from The Godfather than a nominations hearing for a circuit court of appeals judgeship. Throw in the Attorney General and Deputy showing up in person to give committee Republicans the eyeball, and the resemblance is worse.
“Then there are the Trump judges stalling the contempt investigation of DOJ officials, which necessarily implicates Bove. Will they lift their hold after Bove has gotten safe passage onto the federal bench?
“Americans should be very concerned about what President Trump and Senate Republicans are helping Mr. Bove hide.”
