ICYMI: Blumenthal Slams Trump's Dangerous Judicial Nominees

[WASHINGTON, DC] – In case you missed it, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) took to the Senate Floor to speak out against President Trump’s dangerous judicial nominees and the direct threat they pose to the American public. On the Floor, Blumenthal led fellow Democratic Senators in calling out President Trump’s nominees, including Trump loyalists, like Emil Bove, and ideological zealots, like Josh Divine and Whitney Hermandorfer.

Senate Republicans are seeking to move forward with the confirmation of Bove, President Trump’s former personal defense attorney, who has been nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Divine, who defended extreme anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ laws as Missouri’s Attorney General, and Hermandorfer, who co-authored a brief to the Supreme Court supporting the Trump Administration’s effort to end birthright citizenship, were both recently confirmed.

“I’m here with a number of colleagues on probably one of the most important decisions we’re going to make with respect to the future of justice in America. The nomination of Emil Bove to be a judge on the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, the second-highest panel in our judiciary. And he is about as unfit and unqualified as any judicial nominee to come before this body in my 15 years here,” Blumenthal said on the Floor.

Blumenthal pointed to recent whistleblower allegations about Bove’s conduct and disregard for the rule of law, “We were denied the opportunity to have a whistleblower come before the committee, a whistleblower who bravely came forward with facts showing how Mr. Bove suggested – indeed, urged – that lawful court orders be disobeyed, that the Department of Justice ought to tell the court to ‘F’ themselves.”

Blumenthal continued, “This nominee epitomizes the Trump demand for loyalty and fealty above all else to him. A sense that he has the power to do what no ordinary American can expect, from judges or from prosecutors. That they will, in fact, rig the system in his favor, as Mr. Bove has done while representing, supposedly, the Department of Justice. Because he was, like Pam Bondi and others who have taken senior positions, a lawyer in fact for President Trump, his personal lawyer, defending him against claims in his personal capacity, before he took this role in the Department of Justice.”

Blumenthal concluded by calling out the threat Bove and other Trump judicial nominees pose to the American public, “These nominations are unqualified. They’ve revealed themselves to be incapable to meet basic standards of ethical conduct [and] judicial independence, and if confirmed, they’d extend the Administration in its reach into the courts, in effect cosigning the President’s most destructive and dangerous impulses, regardless of legality. I urge my colleagues to join us in opposing these nominees.”

Before leading fellow Democratic Senators in speaking out against these nominees on the Floor, Blumenthal wrote to Attorney General Pam Bondi seeking documents and information regarding a Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) investigation involving Bove when he served as Co-Chief of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) Terrorism and International Narcotics Unit. Blumenthal’s letter can be found here.

A video of Blumenthal’s remarks on the Senate Floor are available here. A full transcript of Blumenthal’s remarks is below.

U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT): I’m here with a number of colleagues on probably one of the most important decisions we’re going to make with respect to the future of justice in America. The nomination of Emil Bove to be a judge on the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, the second-highest panel in our judiciary. And he is about as unfit and unqualified as any judicial nominee to come before this body in my 15 years here. And I say that with sadness as well as anger. As someone who still proudly would call myself a litigator, a trial lawyer and a member the Judiciary Committee where I’m proud to serve with my great colleague, the Ranking Member now, Senator Durbin, and others from that committee will come before us tonight.

We’re here not only on the merits of Mr. Bove, but also because we were denied an opportunity in the committee to present fairly and fully our case against Mr. Bove, based on the record. And we were denied an opportunity to elicit from the Department of Justice and the Administration the facts that are necessary to evaluate his nomination.

We were denied the opportunity to have a whistleblower come before the committee, a whistleblower who bravely came forward with facts showing how Mr. Bove suggested – indeed, urged – that lawful court orders be disobeyed, that the Department of Justice ought to tell the court to “F” themselves. We were denied access to an Office of Professional Responsibility investigation bearing on this nomination. An OPR inquiry into the failure of the team supervised by Mr. Bove to divulge to the defense exculpatory evidence, as they were obligated to do during a prosecution, when he was an Assistant United States Attorney.

And, Mr. Bove himself in the hearing that we conducted was evasive, obfuscating. He refused point-blank to answer relevant questions. One of my colleagues, Senator Whitehouse, who will be here tonight, characterized it as the deliberative process privilege. There is no deliberative process privilege. And Mr. Bove had no right to refuse to answer our questions about what he has done in his role during the first six months of this administration.

The fact is, he has been involved in a pattern of lawlessness and recklessness a violation of individual rights and liberties. A pattern of corruption unprecedented in the history of the United States Department of Justice. And he has been integral to it, participating actively in it.

We have opposed other nominees because we disagree with their judicial philosophy. We’ve opposed them because they were out of the mainstream. They were ideologues with an axe to grind, that was potentially detrimental to rights and liberties. Mr. Bove is in a different category. Yes, he is conservative. He’s out of the mainstream. But he is corrupt. He’s dangerous. Vindictive and revengeful, in a way that this Administration has made a pattern of doing.

So, I’m here to urge my colleagues to stand with us and oppose this nomination. I know that the strong dynamic, we’ve seen it again and again and again, no matter how many doubts my colleagues may have, to toe the line in thrall of President Trump or in the fear of him. But the record here speaks powerfully, or it should, to our conscience and conviction. This nominee epitomizes the Trump demand for loyalty and fealty above all else to him. A sense that he has the power to do what no ordinary American can expect, from judges or from prosecutors. That they will in fact rig the system in his favor, as Mr. Bove has done while representing, supposedly, the Department of Justice. Because he was, like Pam Bondi and others who have taken senior positions, a lawyer in fact for President Trump, his personal lawyer, defending him against claims in his personal capacity, before he took this role in the Department of Justice.

A lot has been made of Mr. Bove’s role in dismissing the case against Eric Adams, the Mayor of New York. I’m not going to go through all the details except to the say that Danielle Sassoon refused to make the argument in favor of dismissing those charges in exchange for concessions on immigration policy. She said it was “an improper offer of immigration enforcement assistance in exchange for a dismissal.”

The lead prosecutor on the Adams case resigned rather than take Mr. Bove’s order, and he, too, said that it would be a violation of conscience and conviction and that anyone who is enough of a fool – and I’m quoting – or enough of a coward to file your motion, end quote, should not do so. The judge in the case said, quote, everything here smacks of a bargain, dismissal of the indictment in exchange for immigration policy concessions. He called Mr. Bove’s position, quote, fundamentally incompatible with the basic promise of equal justice under law.

A quid pro quo deal, but, Mr. Bove said it was fine. Even more disgracefully, he said a court cannot review—at all—a dismissal of this kind. This attitude toward the law alone should disqualify him. But he went further. In a March meeting, according to the whistleblower, he said essentially that lawful court orders should not be obeyed. That’s the nominee for a judgeship saying that judges ought to be defied.

He should not be under consideration for this lifetime appointment. For these reasons and others that my colleagues who are coming to the floor tonight will describe in detail. The short-circuiting and straitjacketing of consideration of Mr. Bove will be a stain on the United States Senate. And, make no mistake, we will rue the day, my colleagues will, if they vote for this nominee.

And we should not in any way turn a blind eye towards the other nominees that will be before us for the District Court – Josh Divine, Maria Lanahan, Jordan Pratt, all nominated to serve as trial lawyers on the federal bench. They’ve made careers crusading against reproductive rights. Judge Pratt wrote an amicus brief supporting Florida’s 15-week abortion ban. He called the procedure, quote, barbaric, end quote, one of the most severe invasions of personal rights imaginable end quote. Judge Patt went so far to raise questions not put before the court by parties and invite the Florida Attorney General to intervene and weigh on these questions. He wrote an opinion holding unconstitutional a Florida law that allows minors to seek abortions without parental consent through judicial waivers. The case didn’t require a court to rule on the law’s constitutionality but Judge Pratt took it upon himself to do so.

And Mr. Divine led and Ms. Lanahan worked on Missouri’s legal challenge against mifepristone. The science is clear, mifepristone is safe. Yet Mr. Divine and Ms. Lanahan didn’t hesitate, not at all, to challenge its approval. And their court filing cited two research studies mere weeks after he filed the complaint that were retracted due to a lack of scientific rigger, problematic methodology and undisclosed bias.

Edward Artau, nominated for the Southern District of Florida, the ethical lapses on his part were undeniable. When he failed to recognize the obvious conflict and recuse himself from his involvement in a case involving the President at a time when he potentially was under consideration for a nomination.

These nominations are unqualified. They’ve revealed themselves to be incapable to meet basic standards of ethical conduct, judicial independence, and if confirmed, they’d extend the Administration in its reach into the courts, in effect cosigning the President’s most destructive and dangerous impulses, regardless of legality. I urge my colleagues to join us in opposing these nominees. Mr. Bove should not be before this body. And I hope my colleagues will recognize the importance of standing strong and speaking out and voting against his nomination and the others that have been made.

And I yield to the Senior Senator from Illinois, the Ranking Member of the Judiciary Committee, our great colleague.

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