It was Bove’s nomination that caused the most consternation from the Democrats, who stormed out of the committee meeting.
The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced on July 17 the nominations of Jeanine Pirro to be U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia and Emil Bove to be a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit—despite Democrats walking out of the meeting.
It was Bove’s nomination that caused the most consternation from the Democrats.
The 12–0 vote on Bove’s nomination was along GOP lines, as Democrats stormed out of the meeting and therefore did not vote.
The Democrats left in protest of Bove’s nomination, as Bove, who is currently the principal associate deputy attorney general, has come under fire for allegedly saying that the Justice Department would ignore court orders on stopping deportations of Venezuelans to a prison in El Salvador by invoking the Alien Enemies Act.
The contentious meeting consisted of Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) speaking out of order, asking why there’s a rush to report him out of committee. Booker spoke as the committee votes on nominees were taking place.
“This is the world’s most deliberative body, and we can’t even debate a controversial judge, a judge that has been accused by a whistleblower of lying to the United States Senate, to lying to this committee,” Booker said.
He said that the United States is “tilting towards authoritarianism with the complicity of Senate Republicans” and that therefore, “the checks and balances that are clearly spelled out by the founders of our democracy are now being undermined.”
Grassley justified the vote.
“I ordered the vote this time, so if you’ll spread that word that this is not unprecedented, either the actions of the minority walking away, or what we did here as a majority, it’s happened before, and we have to move things along,” he said. “And I thank everybody for participating.”
Prior to serving in the administration, Bove was on the legal defense team for President Donald Trump in his New York City case, where Trump was ultimately convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records ahead of the 2016 election.
Pirro, who was previously a co-host on Fox News and was a district attorney and judge in New York, was named as U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia on May 8. She has served in an acting role in that position following the acting tenure of Ed Martin. She was ceremonially sworn in on May 28.
Trump initially named Martin to be permanently in the role, but opposition from Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) caused Trump to withdraw the nomination. Tillis sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, where Republicans have a majority of just one seat. Therefore, Martin’s nomination would have been reported out unfavorably, even though that would not have prevented a vote on the Senate floor, where Republicans have a majority of 53 seats.
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