WALKER WILDMON: From Defender To Nominee: What We Still Don’t Know About Emil Bove

Emil Bove defended President Trump from some of the gravest abuses of the criminal justice system in our nation’s history. These abuses include high-profile lawfare such as the criminal prosecution resulting from President Trump’s legitimate challenge of the very questionable 2020 election, the prosecution involving the business records in New York, and a challenge to the appointment of Special Counsel Jack Smith to investigate alleged “election interference” by the president.

In defending the president in these matters and others, Bove has proven to be a nominee of tested courage, true to his declaration before the Senate Judiciary Committee that he is “not afraid to make difficult decisions . . . . not anybody’s henchman . . . . taken an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States more than once, and honored that oath.”

It is important to note that at the peak of the lawfare lodged against President Trump, the president’s attorneys faced penalties as severe as disbarment, indictment or other sanctions as a result of zealously advocating for their client. Bove’s defense of President Trump is courageous and admirable.

Despite, or perhaps because of, his demonstrated courage, Bove’s nomination , now proceeding to the floor of the full Senate for a vote, has been challenged by his and President Trump’s opponents, including questionable allegations of misconduct in dealings with attorneys and litigants, allegations of criminal contempt, and the disapproval of over 75 former state and federal judges who penned a July 15 letter to the Senate opposing Bove’s nomination due to an alleged, “egregious record of mistreating law enforcement officers, abusing power, and disregarding the law itself . . . .”

Other reports contradict this view of Bove, with Trump defense counsel Christopher Kise stating that Bove is “exceptionally intelligent, and respectful of differing viewpoints,” and another who knew Bove from back in his college days stating that, even at that time, “Bove stood out for his sharp intellect and grueling work ethic.”

As continued unjust legal assaults against the president in recent times have demonstrated, we urgently need federal judges who are not activists looking to effectuate personal political whims but rather are dedicated to their proper role of deciding cases under the law — regardless of their taste or distaste for the parties or policies before them, and regardless of how popular opinion will perceive their proper judicial decisions.