Senate Dems demand information on Emil Bove ethics complaint, threats against judges

WASHINGTON (CN) — A group of Senate Democrats on Tuesday filed a sweeping set of Freedom of Information Act requests with the Justice Department, demanding that it hand over information on a dozen topics pertinent to the federal judiciary.

And, in one such request, lawmakers hope to revive their dormant ethics complaint against Emil Bove, the appellate judge and former Justice Department official who was one of President Donald Trump’s most controversial nominees to the federal bench.

The Democrats, including Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal and California Senator Adam Schiff, framed their FOIA requests as a last-ditch effort to secure information from the White House after separate efforts were “summarily ignored or met by incomplete answers” from what they described as a “recalcitrant” Trump administration.

“The ‘no transparency’ Trump administration has repeatedly thumbed its nose to my many legitimate oversight requests,” said Whitehouse in a statement. “For Democrats, there’s plenty of dripping contempt, insults and stonewalling of Congress’ constitutional oversight authority. But for Republican priorities, there’s a fast-track for document dumps.”

“By resisting and preventing our efforts for oversight, this administration is allowing corruption, deception and misconduct to take hold and fester within our government,” Blumenthal said in a separate statement.

The Democrats demanded that the Trump administration fulfill information requests on a wide range of topics, including federal money laundering reports related to Jeffrey Epstein, Trump’s acceptance of a Qatari plane and records related to a reported FBI bribery sting operation against White House border czar Tom Homan.

But the lawmakers also pushed the Justice Department to provide an update on an ethics complaint lodged in February against Bove, then Trump’s nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Bove, a one-time attorney for the president who served at the beginning of his second term as acting deputy attorney general, attracted intense scrutiny from Democrats during his nomination process. The former Justice Department official faced tough questions about his involvement in the agency’s move to dismiss charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

And whistleblower reports at the time said that the Third Circuit nominee had told Justice Department colleagues that they may need to tell a federal judge “fuck you” and defy court orders to carry out Trump’s aggressive deportation campaign.

Bove hotly contested Democrats’ scrutiny — but Whitehouse and Blumenthal nonetheless filed a formal complaint against the nominee with the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility. The senators accused Bove of violating “multiple” ethics rules, including the agency’s Justice Manual and professional conduct rules set by the New York State Bar, where he was admitted to practice law.

But, amid radio silence from the Justice Department about a possible ethics investigation, Senate Democrats on Tuesday sought to secure more information via FOIA request.

In a letter to the agency’s FOIA officer, the senators demanded the Justice Department turn over all its records related to the Office of Professional Responsibility’s intake or review of the February complaint, as well as any records that show an investigation was initiated — or declined.

The lawmakers also requested summaries of any investigation related to the complaint including ones they said were typically published by the Office of Professional Responsibility. They gave the Justice Department 20 business days to return with the requested information.

Meanwhile, the group of Senate Democrats also demanded that the Justice Department hand over records it has collected on the orchestration of threats against federal judges that have ruled against the Trump administration. In particular, they requested information about threats against judges that refer to billionaire Elon Musk or right-wing provocateur Laura Loomer.

Musk in particular has been a vocal critic of judges that rule against the Trump administration and has joined calls to remove certain jurists he’s branded as political activists.

Though there is little political will in Congress to impeach federal judges, even those lawmakers have framed as impediments to the president’s agenda, the federal judiciary has repeatedly warned that threats against judges are rising dramatically.

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