As key cogs in our legal system, lawyers must follow the core principle that they engage in zealous advocacy on behalf of their clients but stay within the bounds of the law. Over the first five months of President Donald Trump’s second administration, Emil Bove III, formerly one of Trump’s personal lawyers, has tested the limits of his obligations to the legal system in service of the administration’s policy goals.
Trump has nominated Bove for a lifetime appointment to a federal appeals court. The Senate will now consider Bove’s nomination. Recent allegations that he gave federal prosecutors instructions to ignore court rulings, if true, suggest he isn’t fit to practice law at all, let alone serve on the federal bench.
I categorically reject any claim of unethical or inappropriate behavior by me.
Emil Bove III to the senate judiciary committee wednesday, june 25
Bove, in a confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, denied that specific allegation. “I have never advised a Department of Justice attorney to violate a court order,” he said. He also said, “I categorically reject any claim of unethical or inappropriate behavior by me.”
Bove’s main claim to fame is that he served on the legal team that tried but failed to keep Trump from being convicted of 34 felony counts in Manhattan in 2024. When Trump later rewarded Bove a leadership position in the Justice Department, he reportedly gave an order to Justice Department attorneys in the Public Integrity Unit that a pending indictment accusing New York Mayor Eric Adams of bribery and wire fraud be dropped. U.S. District Judge Dale E. Ho found that the record “points towards an uncomfortable conclusion: that the decision to dismiss this case was apparently premised on the Mayor taking subsequent immigration-related actions in conformity with the administration’s policy preferences.”
Now, a Justice Department whistleblower says Bove sought to undermine the federal judiciary’s ability to provide effective oversight of the administration’s plans to deport certain immigrants without due process of law.
According to a letter to the ranking members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, written on behalf of former Justice Department lawyer Erez Reuveni, Bove told the team defending the administration’s immigration policies to be prepared to ignore any federal court rulings halting deportations and, according to Reuveni, consider telling judges “f— you.”
Bove testified Wednesday that he couldn’t recall using that profanity and never advised Justice Department lawyers to defy a federal court order.
Reuveni’s minute-by-minute account of the issuance of judicial orders halting certain deportations, and the corresponding communications within the Justice Department and between federal agencies, paints a grim picture of lawyers’ knowingly defying court orders, making misrepresentations to the court and dragging their feet with the goal of ensuring the deportations could take place without judicial interference. Reuveni’s allegations, if true, paint a troubling picture of Bove’s behavior as a senior Justice Department official, one that raises serious questions about not just his qualifications for a federal judgeship, but also his fitness to practice law altogether.
Some of his critics, including Justice Department attorney Todd Blanche, another member of the Trump legal team, paint Reuveni as a disgruntled former Justice Department official who they say was fired for poor performance. Yet Reuveni received excellent reviews for over a decade during Republican and Democratic administrations. His main offense appears to be admitting that Kilmer Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man deported to a Salvadoran prison, was wrongfully deported because of an administrative error.
According to the legal profession’s code of ethics and rules governing litigation in federal court, a lawyer may not make false or misleading statements in court, may present only good faith arguments about the legitimacy of their legal positions, must not encourage others to violate the rules of ethics and must oversee lawyers they supervise in a way that ensures that those lawyers comply with their own ethical obligations. If Reuveni’s account of Bove’s conduct is true, then Bove hasn’t met the profession’s ethical obligations. Bove isn’t the first lawyer accused of violating his ethical obligations to promote Trump’s agenda. Bove wouldn’t be the first lawyer associated with Trump accused of violating his ethical obligations to promote Trump’s agenda. For his false, misleading and even defamatory statements, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani has been disbarred in two jurisdictions. John Eastman, the conservative lawyer who would come up with the patently frivolous claim that Vice President Mike Pence could overturn the results of the 2020 election, has been disbarred in California, a decision recently affirmed by that state’s highest court. Jeffrey Clark, a former Justice Department official who urged the department to make false statements to election officials in Georgia regarding the 2020 election — and asked Trump to appoint him attorney general if Justice Department lawyers wouldn’t go along with Clark’s scheme — now faces the prospect of a two-year suspension from the practice of law. Elihu Root, a prominent New York lawyer who held several Cabinet positions under Presidents William McKinley and Teddy Roosevelt, reportedly opined that “[a]bout half the practice of a decent lawyer consists in telling would-be clients that they are damned fools and should stop.” According to allegations regarding Bove’s conduct in his short stint in the Justice Department, specifically his attempt to push Trump’s deportation agenda no matter what, it seems he hasn’t exhibited the qualities of Root’s “decent lawyer.” Will such reports sink his nomination? Unfortunately, given Trump’s hold on the Republican Party, that’s hard to say. Regardless, if Reuveni’s allegations hold up, Bove may well have failed to uphold his most basic obligations as an attorney. Trump has nominated Bove for a lifetime appointment to a federal appeals court. The Senate will now consider Bove’s nomination. Recent allegations that he gave federal prosecutors instructions to ignore court rulings, if true, suggest he isn’t fit to practice law at all, let alone serve on the federal bench.
Ray Brescia
Ray Brescia is a professor of law at Albany Law School and author of the book “The Private Is Political: Identity and Democracy in the Age of Surveillance Capitalism.” 
