The Federal Judge at the Trump Rally

MS NOW Reporter Vaughn Hillyard observed that Bove’s appearance at the resort was “an unusual move.” That’s a dramatic understatement. It is normal and appropriate for a president to appoint a political ally or administration official to a judgeship. It is neither normal nor appropriate for this person – or any federal judge, for that matter – to attend an unambiguous political event. The president, of course, gives the State of the Union address, which is naturally attended by the Supreme Court justices, and makes other formal speeches and remarks, but this was not the case with the State of the Union. It was a campaign rally. As Trump told the crowd, Wiles had urged him to hit the trail. “We need to start campaigning, sir,” Wiles was quoted as saying by Trump. “We must win the midterm elections, and you are the one who will lead us through the midterms.” Participants wore MAGA hats and waving signs reading “Lower Prices” and “Bigger Paychecks.” The president denounced his predecessor, Joe Biden, as “a sleeping son of a bitch who destroyed our country.” He lamented: “We only accept people from shithole countries” that are “filthy, dirty, disgusting, crime-ridden.” He attacked Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, “whatever her name is, with her little turban,” adding of the Somali-born lawmaker: “We should get her out.” He called Democrats “sick people” who “always have a hoax.” The new word is “affordability.” » The crowd chanted “Four more years”.

The day after the event, the judicial reform group Fix the Court filed an ethics complaint against Bove, calling the gathering “a highly charged and highly political event that no federal judge should have been within earshot of.” (When I called Bove’s office Wednesday, a person who answered the phone but declined to give his name said the judge would not comment.) Jeremy Fogel, a former federal judge appointed by President Clinton and an expert on judicial ethics, agreed. “It violates the spirit, if not the letter, of Canon 5, which is the prohibition on political activity, and it creates at least an appearance of lack of impartiality,” Fogel told me. Former federal appeals court judge J. Michael Luttig, a George HW Bush appointee who became a leading Trump critic, was even harsher. “I have never known a federal judge to attend this event,” Luttig told me. “This is completely inappropriate for a sitting federal judge, particularly Judge Bove, given the controversial circumstances of his confirmation.”

Luttig was referring to the fact that Bove won confirmation by a single vote, with Republican Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska voting against him. (Republican Sen. Bill Hagerty of Tennessee was absent.) The narrow margin reflects the fact that Bove, during his seven months at the Justice Department, has become one of the most controversial figures in the new administration. In January, as acting deputy attorney general, Bové ordered the firing of prosecutors who had worked on the Jan. 6 cases, saying, “I will not tolerate subversive personnel actions by the previous administration.” » The following month, he asked federal prosecutors in Manhattan, where he had worked until 2021, to drop corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, leading to mass resignations in the Southern District and the department’s public integrity section. Then, as the Senate Judiciary Committee considered Bove’s nomination to the Third Circuit, Erez Reuveni, who had been one of the department’s top immigration lawyers, filed a complaint against him, describing a meeting about Trump’s plan to invoke the Foreign Enemies Act to deport suspected members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang. According to Reuveni, Bove said that if a federal court blocked the action, the department “should consider telling the courts ‘fuck you.’ » Bove told the Judiciary Committee that he didn’t remember making that statement — a non-denial that proved enough to have him confirmed.