FBI Director Kash Patel and Emil Bove listen to President Donald Trump speak at the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. on March 14, 2025. (ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP via Getty Images)
In the end, their appeal was unsuccessful, and Booker joined Democrats on the panel in walking out of the room before the vote was held.
The narrow confirmation vote from Republicans on the panel advances Bove's nomination to the full Senate for a vote. It comes as Bove, a hard-charging former federal prosecutor whom Trump installed earlier this year as a senior official at the Justice Department, faces fresh scrutiny over his role in the administration. In recent weeks, a group of former federal judges and several Democrats on the committee have urged senators to reject his nomination.
If confirmed by the Senate, he would serve a lifetime appointment on the federal bench, which has jurisdiction in the districts of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware.
Grassley rejected a request Tuesday afternoon from Democrats on the panel to hold a second round of hearings on Bove's nomination, noting that, under the Democrat majority, the panel rejected at least four such requests made by Republicans.
"Many times during the last Administration, then-chairman Durbin said ‘there cannot be one set of rules for Republicans on this committee and another set of rules for Democrats,’" Grassley said. "I agree with this statement and intend to adhere to the precedent of then-Chairman Durbin."
Grassley added that Bove had participated in a lengthy confirmation hearing last month, testifying under oath about whistleblower allegations made by a former Justice Department attorney.
Bove said under oath at the time, "I have never advised a Department of Justice attorney to violate a court order." Grassley also noted that Bove provided members of the panel with 165 pages of written responses to their questions.
"Following a comprehensive review of the additional documents that you published following the hearing and discussed in the media, I do not believe that they substantiate any misconduct by Mr. Bove," Grassley said, outlining plans to move forward with the vote as planned.
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Trump nominated for a lifetime appointment to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. (Getty Images)
These allegations were detailed in part by an explosive whistleblower report last month from former Justice Department attorney Erez Reuveni, who also detailed Bove's role in ousting some federal prosecutors involved in the investigations into the January 6 U.S. Capitol riot, and his alleged role in ordering department officials to ignore court orders with regard to the Alien Enemies Act
According to Reuveni, Bove "explicitly plotted to violate court orders" and directed law enforcement officers "to engage in illegal acts," among other things.
Reuveni, a 15-year DOJ veteran who was fired after struggling to defend the Trump administration's deportations in a U.S. court case in Maryland, said in the whistleblower complaint that Bove shocked longtime career officials handling immigration cases by telling them they would "need to consider telling the courts ‘f*** you’ and ignore any such court order."
The report prompted new concerns from former judges, including a group of more than 75 former federal and state judges, who urged lawmakers Tuesday to reject Bove's nomination — citing what they described in a letter as his "egregious record" at the Justice Department, according to the allegations from Reuveni.
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"These are not actions of someone committed to equal justice under the law," the group said in a letter. "Rather, they reflect a troubling pattern of abusing prosecutorial discretion to shield political allies."
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who has worked closely with Bove for years, told Fox News Digital in an interview ahead of the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing last month that Bove is a "freaking brilliant lawyer," and described his nomination to the appellate court as a "no-brainer."
Blanche described his colleague as the "most gentle, empathetic, great person that anybody could ever work with."
Breanne Deppisch is a national politics reporter for Fox News Digital covering the Trump administration, with a focus on the Justice Department, FBI, and other national news.
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https://www.foxnews.com/politics/senate-judiciary-committee-votes-confirm-trumps-pick-emil-bove-amid-controversy