Dick Durbin Confronts Top Trump DOJ Nominee About Involvement In Pardon For Eric Adams

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At today's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) questioned Emil Bove, nominee to be to be United States Circuit Judge for the Third Circuit, and current Deputy AG.

Transcript

00:00Mr. Bova, you were deeply involved with the Justice Department's decision to drop federal

00:05corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

00:09You were personally involved in this.

00:12Multiple federal prosecutors resigned rather than to dismiss the indictment against Mayor

00:16Adams.

00:18These individuals made it clear that they believe you had engaged in a quid pro quo with

00:23Mayor Adams in order to secure his cooperation with President Trump's immigration priorities.

00:29Following these resignations, you reportedly held a video call with dozens of attorneys

00:34in the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section.

00:37Do you remember that call?

00:40I do.

00:41Mr. Bova, why did you move forward with this case over the objection of the U.S. Attorney's

00:45Office, including the lead prosecutor?

00:50I made a decision and the department made a decision to proceed with that motion because

00:54it was a determination of the senior leadership of the department that policy reasons made

01:00it appropriate to dismiss the charges.

01:02In order to get Mayor Adams to cooperate with President Trump's immigration policy, you were

01:07prepared to drop the charges against him?

01:09That's completely false and I just explained why.

01:11Well, it is not completely false.

01:13That's exactly what happened.

01:14But the judge foiled your plans with prejudice dismissal of the case.

01:21You could no longer have the mayor on a leash making sure that he follows the President's

01:26immigration policies.

01:27Ranking Member Durbin, there's objective evidence in the record in that case that completely

01:33refutes the claim you just made.

01:34And there's objective evidence to the contrary.

01:37On your call with individuals in the Public Integrity Section, did you state, suggest or imply

01:42that the section's career attorneys could be fired if none of them agreed to sign the

01:46brief, dismissing Mayor Adams' indictment?

01:48No.

01:49Do you know the two individuals who signed the brief?

01:53I do.

01:58Edward Sullivan, one of them?

02:01Yes.

02:02Antoinette Bacon, another?

02:05That's correct.

02:07Did you state, suggest or imply that any individual who agreed to sign a brief would be rewarded?

02:11No.

02:12I'm sorry, I don't follow the question.

02:15Well, you needed somebody to sign that brief and those two stepped forward.

02:18Was there any suggestion they'd be treated any differently because of it?

02:22No.

02:23Which attorney, I've already asked this question.

02:26Have either of these attorneys been promoted since this occurrence?

02:31Not to my knowledge, no.

02:33Mr. Bovee, in January 2022, you co-authored an article for Law 360 in which you described

02:39domestic terrorism as, quote, a national security issue.

02:43You then cited charges brought against attendees of the August 2017 Unite the Right white supremacist

02:51rally in Charlottesville and against members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers relating

02:56to the January 6th insurrection at the Capitol.

02:58You described these prosecutions in the article as, quote, recent examples that illustrate

03:03the asymmetry between international terrorism statutes and the patchwork of narrower laws

03:09that can be used to address domestic terrorism.

03:12Mr. Bovee, do you stand by your characterization of the 2017 Unite the Right rally and January

03:186th domestic and January 6th as domestic terrorism?

03:22I stand by what I said in the article.

03:25You directed Ed Martin, the failed nominee to serve as U.S. attorney for the District of

03:29Columbia, to fire dozens of line prosecutors who had worked on the January 6th case.

03:35You also sought the names of thousands of FBI employees who had worked on investigations

03:40into January 6th rioters, accused these career public servants of, quote, weaponization,

03:45close quote, of the FBI.

03:47Mr. Bovee, did you order the removal of anyone who investigated or prosecuted rioters who assaulted

03:53law enforcement officers on January 6th?

03:57So, Ranking Member Durbin, with respect to the prosecutors that you just referenced, there

04:02was a decision that was made in response to moves by the prior administration to embed

04:09temporary assistant United States attorneys who were brought to the District for purposes

04:13of the January 6th cases into that office as permanent employees, in many instances after

04:19the 2024 election.

04:21When I found out about that, I found it to be unacceptable from the perspective of the

04:25management of that office and the need for the permanent U.S. attorney put forth by the

04:30President and by Attorney General Bondi to manage the office and to staff it.

04:36The attorneys that were terminated were on probationary status.

04:40I was advised, I did not make this decision alone, that-

04:43Mr. Bovee, this doesn't square with your own words.

04:47I have in my hand here the memorandum that you prepared on January 31st, 2025 to U.S. attorneys

04:54and others, in which you made it clear this was about more than provisional employees being

04:59dismissed.

04:59Let me read what you wrote.

05:01In an executive order issued on January 20th, 2025, President Trump appropriately characterized

05:08that work as having involved a grave national injustice that's been perpetrated upon the

05:14American people over the last four years.

05:16This is not about provisional employees.

05:18It's about January 6th prosecutions.

05:21You call them a domestic terrorism event in this article that you have written.

05:25Those people, those of us who lived through this ordeal, understand it was such a domestic

05:30terrorist event.

05:31And now you're trying to have it both ways.

05:33You're saying you dismissed the people who prosecuted those who beat up on our law enforcement

05:37officers and it had nothing to do with January 6th.

05:40Your words defy that.

05:42That's not correct, Ranking Member Durbin, most respectfully.

05:45Because both things can be true.

05:47I did and continue to condemn unlawful behavior, particularly violence against law enforcement.

05:53At the same time, I condemn heavy handed and unnecessary tactics by prosecutors and agents.

06:00Both of those things, I submit, are characteristic of these events that you're talking about.

06:05These people paid for your strategy with their careers.

06:08They lost their jobs in the Department of Justice and in the FBI because you identified them as being

06:14involved in January 6th prosecution.

06:16You cannot call on one hand that prosecution as a grave injustice, as you did in your own

06:22memo here.

06:23And then on the other hand, tell me how seriously you feel about people assaulting police officers.

06:27I have to disagree again, respectfully, most respectfully.

06:31No FBI agents, to my knowledge, were terminated in connection with the list that's referenced

06:37in that memo.

06:39What I requested was some information about who had participated so that I could begin in the

06:44department could begin a process of reviewing the events to identify whether there were

06:50the types of heavy handed tactics that I just referenced.

06:53I have one last question here.

06:55Do you support President Trump's full and unconditional pardon of January 6 rioters who violently assaulted

07:01law enforcement officers?

07:02It's not for me to question President Trump's exercise of the pardon power any more than it

07:07would be for me to question President Biden's commutation of death sentences or his pardons

07:12of drug traffickers.

07:15Before I go to Senator Lee, I'd like to address the quid pro quo allegation head on by entering

07:22in.

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Transcript

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