The U.S. Senate on Thursday voted 50-48 to advance President Donald Trump’s nomination of Emil Bove to a full vote before the U.S. Senate, despite the efforts of Erez Reuveni, the attorney who was fired by the U.S. Department of Justice, and later filed a whistleblower complaint claiming Bove and the Trump administration planned to defy court orders.
The Senate Judiciary Committee previously advanced Trump’s nomination of Bove on July 17, and the Senate voted along partisan lines on Thursday to end debate over his nomination, which will be the final vote before Bove’s confirmation is complete.
Trump nominated Bove in May to serve as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, where he will rank among the judges who review appeals from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
While Bove is currently serving as the Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General for the U.S. Department of Justice, he previously serving as an Acting Deputy Attorney General, where he reportedly helped strategize the government’s defense to the lawsuit brought by Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the citizen of El Salvador who claimed he was wrongfully deported by the Trump administration in March.
Reuveni was fired for failing to advocate on behalf of his client shortly after telling U.S. District Court Judge Paula Xinis that Abrego Garcia’s deportation was improper, but claimed in his later whistleblower complaint that he witnessed Bove concoct plans to defy the U.S. Supreme Court order demanding the Trump administration facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return to the country.
Abrego Garcia was returned to the United States on June 6, when U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi unsealed the criminal indictment, which accused him of being embroiled in a human smuggling ring for nearly a decade. She specifically stated that President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador agreed to return Abrego Garcia to the country after the indictment was unsealed.
Reuveni made similar claims of Bove over court orders which barred the Trump administration from using the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport members of Central American gangs labeled terrorist organizations, and deporting illegal immigrants to third-party nations that agree to receive them.
AÂ review of the cases revealed the Trump administration ceased using the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 after receiving a Supreme Court order, while the high court actually gave the Trump administration permission to continue deportations to third-party nations.
Reuveni was interviewed by a New York Times podcast on Wednesday, just one day before the hearing, when the fired DOJ attorney indicated he thought his job was to pursue “justice,” even if that meant losing a case while representing the government.
The Tennessee Star was the first outlet to report that Abrego Garcia was stopped by Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) in November 2022, when the “Biden-era FBI” instructed troopers to release him despite their suspicion he was involved in human trafficking.
Abrego Garcia has pleaded not guilty to the federal human smuggling charges. His trial is currently scheduled for January 27, but federal judges in Tennessee may have made it possible for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to deport him before the trial occurs.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
