Watch his remarks here.
Washington, D.C. – Today, during the Senate Judiciary Committee’s judicial nomination hearing, U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) pressed Emil Bove, President Donald Trump’s nominee for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, on whether he suggested that DOJ attorneys should ignore court orders.
Key Excerpts:
On Bove suggesting he would ignore court orders to advance President Trump’s immigration agenda:
Schiff: […] In the complaint, it says Bove stated that DOJ would need to consider telling the courts “fuck you” and ignoring any such court order. Did you say anything of that kind in the meeting?
Bove: Senator, I have no recollection of saying anything of that kind, to the extent I usually —
Schiff: Wouldn’t you recall, Mr. Bove, if you said or suggested during a meeting with Justice Department lawyers that maybe they should consider telling the court “fuck you”? It seems to me that would be something you’d remember, unless that’s the kind of thing you say frequently.
Bove: Well, I’ve certainly said things encouraging litigators at the department to fight hard for valid positions that we have to take in defense of our clients.
Schiff: And have you frequently suggested that they say “fuck you” and ignore court orders? Is that also something you frequently do such you might not remember doing it in this occasion?
Bove: No. And as I explained, I have never directed —
Schiff: So, did you or did you not make those comments during that meeting?
Bove: Which comments, Senator?
Schiff: You really need me to repeat it? Did you suggest, as Mr. Reuveni wrote, that DOJ would need to consider telling the courts “fuck you” and ignore any such court order?
Bove: I did not suggest that there would be any need to consider ignoring court orders. At the point of that meeting, there were no court orders to discuss.
Schiff: Well, did you suggest telling the courts “fuck you” in any manner?
Bove: I don’t recall.
Schiff: You just don’t remember that. Well, let me ask you this. It also says in the complaint, “Bove indicated and stressed to all in attendance that the planes needed to take off no matter what.” These are the planes that a judge was ordering not be used to render people to a maximum-security prison outside the country. Did you say during that meeting, did you stress to all in attendance that the planes needed to take off no matter what?
Bove: Senator, your characterization is not accurate.
Schiff: It’s not my characterization. It’s the characterization of a decorated prosecutor who was in that meeting. Are you saying that he’s lying?
Bove: As I said at the beginning of the hearing —
Schiff: No, no, I’m not interested in what you said the beginning of the hearing. I’m interested in whether you stressed to people in attendance that the planes needed to take off no matter what. Did you say that?
Bove: I certainly conveyed the importance of the upcoming operation.
Schiff: Well, don’t paraphrase here. Did you tell people in attendance the planes needed to take off no matter what?
Bove: I don’t recall the specific words that I used.
Schiff: Wouldn’t you recall saying that if you had instructed that the planes needed to take off no matter what, including whether the court ordered otherwise? You wouldn’t remember that?
Bove: This is a mischaracterization, Senator, there were no court orders at this point.
Schiff: Well, there was a court order. Wasn’t there?
Bove: No, that’s —
Schiff: Wasn’t there a court order by Judge Boasberg. If not in this specific case, then in related cases that that people not be sent out of the country until the court could rule? Wasn’t there a court order?
Bove: Not at the time of that meeting, Senator.
On calling for the meeting notes referenced in the whistleblower’s report on Bove:
Schiff: […] Let me ask you this, Mr. Bove, if there are notes of that meeting, will you provide them to this committee?
Bove: I defer to the committee and to the executive branch on the procedure.
Schiff: And if the committee requests them, will you provide those notes to the committee?
Bove: I defer to the executive branch on the handling of that request.
Schiff: And let me ask you about notes from another meeting, which are contesting here, and that is the meeting over the decision to dismiss the case in New York, the corruption case against the mayor of New York. According to Ms. Sassoon, the U.S. Attorney at the time, during the meeting with Adams’ attorneys, where she described Adams’ attorneys repeatedly urging what amounted to a quid pro quo, that you admonished one of the lawyers in the room to stop taking notes. Is that true?
Bove: I don’t believe I instructed that attorney to stop taking notes. I did remark on the fact that he was taking extensive notes, yes.
Schiff: And why did it concern you that he was taking notes of that meeting?
Bove: Because at that point in the meeting, we were discussing who was responsible for media leaks, and I was making the point that only the prosecutors had created an extensive record that could support detailed leaks.
Schiff: And you were concerned, were you, that information about this potential quid pro quo might become public? Was that the concern?
Bove: I’ve explained that there was no quid pro quo.
Schiff: Will you provide the notes of that meeting, which you, according to the U.S. Attorney, instructed be collected at the end of the meeting?
Bove: I think a member of my staff may have given that instruction outside my presence, and I defer to the committee and the executive branch on records requests and how there should be handled.
[…]
Schiff: […] I’ve requested the notes from two pivotal meetings that go to the heart of the nominee’s credibility. The meeting over the decision to drop charges against the mayor of New York, and the meeting in which the whistleblower alleges that the nominee suggested ignoring court orders and telling the courts, essentially, “fuck you.” The witness has said that the decision whether to turn off those notes will determine or depend, I guess, on whether there’s an assertion of privilege of some kind. And we have the great, good fortune at this moment to have the Attorney General and the Deputy Attorney General here with us today. We can resolve this right now. I would ask through the chair whether the Attorney General and the Deputy Attorney General will approve the provision of these notes to the committee. They could be provided to the chair and the Ranking Member in camera, if necessary, so that the question that Senator Kennedy asked about whether there was some illicit bargain, and that my colleagues have asked, can be resolved. If there are detailed notes of these meetings, it will give us an answer to who’s telling the truth here.
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