Politics

Lightfoot Joins Hundreds of Ex-DOJ Employees Condemning Trump Judicial Nominee Emil Bove

Former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot was among hundreds of ex-Department of Justice officials who signed a letter opposing the appointment of Trump attorney Emil Bove to an appellate judgeship, citing their “deep concern” for the future of the U.S. justice system.

Lightfoot, who spent six years as an assistant U.S. attorney in the late 1990s and early 2000s, joined more than 900 DOJ employees in calling Bove — who is nominated for a seat on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals — a leader in the “senseless attacks on the dedicated career employees who are the backbone of the Department.”

“It is intolerable to us that anyone who disgraces the Justice Department would be promoted to one of the highest courts in the land,” the letter states, “as it should be intolerable to anyone committed to maintaining our ordered system of justice.”

Beyond Lightfoot, more than two dozen other former DOJ officials from across Illinois’ Northern and Southern districts signed onto the letter.

The letter was sent Wednesday to U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin, Chuck Grassley and the rest of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which advanced Bove’s nomination Thursday after Democrats walked out of the vote in protest of the nomination.

As Grassley moved for a vote, Democratic Sen. Cory Booker expressed frustration that not all voices had been heard yet, prompting the rest of the Democrats on the committee to walk out before Republicans advanced Bove’s nomination to the floor.

If he is confirmed by the full Senate, Bove will receive a lifetime appointment to that seat on the 3rd Circuit, which hears cases from Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Bove, who along with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche served as a criminal defense lawyer for President Donald Trump, has been behind some of the most scrutinized Justice Department actions since Trump returned to office, including the dismissal of New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ corruption case.

Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Monday that Trump is only focused on “a nominee’s perceived loyalty to him and his agenda — and a willingness to rule in favor of him and his administration.”

Bove’s nomination has come under scrutiny after a fired department lawyer claimed in a complaint that Bove used an expletive when he said during a meeting that the Trump administration might need to ignore judicial commands.

In their letter, the former DOJ officials wrote that “(f)ew actions could undermine the rule of law more than a senior executive branch official flouting another branch’s authority.”

“But that is exactly what Mr. Bove allegedly did through his involvement in DOJ’s defiance of court orders,” they wrote.

The officials added that the dismissal of Adams’ case “gave the appearance of impermissible political considerations stemming from President Trump’s immigration agenda.”

Bove has also accused FBI officials of “insubordination” for refusing to hand over the names of agents who investigated the U.S. Capitol riot and ordered the firings of a group of prosecutors involved in the Jan. 6 criminal cases.

“Purging dedicated public servants for following the law was a betrayal of DOJ’s law-enforcement principles and an affront to democratic values,” the former DOJ officials wrote in their letter. “Because Mr. Bove oversaw the investigation of January 6 suspects himself as an Assistant United States Attorney, it was also a breathtaking act of hypocrisy.”

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