Washington, D.C. – Today U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) joined Senators Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawai’i), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), and Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), all members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, in a letter to Interim U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) Jay Clayton requesting personnel records relevant to Emil Bove III, President Trump’s nominee to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
From 2012 to 2021, Mr. Bove served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY). During his tenure at SDNY, Mr. Bove was promoted to Acting Deputy Chief for the Narcotics Unit in 2019 and, later, Co-Chief of the Terrorism and International Narcotics Unit from 2019 to 2021.
“According to public reporting, Mr. Bove’s unprofessional and unethical conduct and his vindictive and angry temperament with opposing counsel and his own colleagues led to multiple complaints, professional interventions, and the threat of demotion throughout his career at SDNY. In 2018, a group of federal criminal defense attorneys in Manhattan were so alarmed by Mr. Bove’s pattern of unethical conduct that they wrote his supervisors at SDNY to warn them that he was a liability for the office,” the Senators wrote.
The Senators’ letter includes the previously unreported full text of that email complaint, which described Mr. Bove as the “prosecutor version of a drunk driver — completely reckless and out of control.”
“Mr. Bove’s record of alleged abuse of power, ethical lapses, dishonesty, and unstable, abusive behavior during his tenure as a federal prosecutor warrants a thorough review of his employment history at SDNY by members of the Judiciary Committee. Mr. Bove now seeks a lifetime appointment to a federal appeals court, an office that carries immense power and limited accountability. It is also a role that requires constant collaboration with and deep trust amongst all of the judges on the appeals court. Bove’s documented conduct raises serious concerns about his fitness for such a role,” the Senators continued.
The Senators requested the following records by no later than June 23, 2025:
- All internal complaints, formal and informal, against Mr. Bove during his tenure at the SDNY.
- All external complaints submitted to SDNY, including from opposing counsel, during his tenure at the SDNY.
- All records regarding Mr. Bove’s management style and alleged abusive behavior.
To read the full text of the letter, click here.
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