00:00And we look forward to hearing from each of them today.
00:04So now to Senator Durbin, ranking member.
00:07Thank you, Chairman Grassley, and congratulations to the nominees, their families, and friends.
00:13First, a matter of record.
00:15For the last four years before this one, I was chairman of this committee.
00:19We considered 235 judicial nominees that were sent to us by the White House.
00:28Those nominees were all approved by this committee and by the United States Senate.
00:34Eighty percent, 80 percent of the nominees received bipartisan roll call support.
00:41So I want to make that record very clear.
00:44Today we'll hear from Emil Bovee, who has been nominated for a lifetime appointment to a New Jersey seat on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.
00:53Over the years, especially during the first Trump administration, I've disagreed with many nominees who appeared before this committee on matters of constitutional interpretation.
01:05President Trump's judicial picks during his first term were largely legal conservatives.
01:10This nominee is in a category all of his own.
01:13A former personal defense attorney of President Trump, Mr. Bovee has led the effort to weaponize the Department of Justice against the president's enemies.
01:25Having earned his stripes as a loyalist to this president, he's been rewarded with this lifetime nomination.
01:31Mr. Bovee has fired dozens of career federal prosecutors who worked on cases related to the January 6th insurrection, cases that were assigned to them.
01:45In Mr. Bovee's memo, ordering the termination of these prosecutors, and we have a copy here for those who have any question about it,
01:52he cited President Trump's false and outrageous claim that the prosecution of January 6th rioters was, quote,
02:00a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people over the last four years, end of quote.
02:10For the record, 169 of these January 6th rioters who attacked our Capitol were convicted of assaulting law enforcement agents.
02:20The married men and women who stand behind you and in the hallways, risking their lives for your safety and my safety, were the victims of this January 6th attack.
02:31169 were convicted of crimes related directly to that question.
02:37President Trump gave them and over 1,000 other rioters a full pardon as one of his first acts of office.
02:45Mr. Bovee called these convictions, quote, a grave injustice.
02:52Mr. Bovee also ordered the FBI to compile a list of all current and former FBI employees who were assigned, quote,
02:59at any time, close quote, to a January 6th investigation, quote,
03:05to determine whether any additional personnel actions are necessary.
03:08Political retribution at this high level of our government has seldom been seen.
03:15This was done and executed by the nominee.
03:19There's more.
03:20Mr. Bovee personally intervened to strike a corrupt bargain with the New York City Mayor, Eric Adams.
03:28You read about it.
03:29We've all heard the quotes.
03:30In response, he wanted to drop the prosecution of Mayor Adams in exchange for Adams' promise to cooperate with President Trump's immigration policies.
03:41In response, several professional prosecutors resigned, including the U.S. attorney herself,
03:49a staunch conservative who clerked for Justice Scalia and was appointed by President Trump.
03:55She resigned over Mr. Bovee's suggested deal.
03:58The lead prosecutor in the Adams case also resigned.
04:03Hagan Scotton, who earned two Bronze Stars in Iraq, clerk for Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Kavanaugh,
04:10wrote to Mr. Bovee, and I quote,
04:12I expect you will eventually find someone who is enough of a fool, enough of a coward, to file your motion.
04:19But it was never going to be me.
04:23And according to a whistleblower complaint the committee received yesterday,
04:26Mr. Bovee has suggested that the Justice Department might need to say F you to federal courts
04:33and ignore federal court orders with which this administration disagrees.
04:38Ladies and gentlemen, this gets to the heart of our democracy and the rule of law.
04:43As Senator Kennedy of Louisiana has rightly reminded previous nominees, and I quote,
04:48Don't ever, ever take the position that you're not going to follow an order of the federal court ever, end of quote.
04:57These serious allegations against Mr. Bovee came not from the ACLU,
05:02but from a career Justice Department lawyer who was promoted by the Trump administration
05:06and is best known for defending the first Trump administration's immigration policies in court.
05:12He has now put his reputation on the line to inform this committee on the judiciary
05:18of what Mr. Bovee's wrongdoing was, and predictably he's being attacked by the president's MAGA lapdogs.
05:25In addition to Mr. Bovee's unethical conduct, there are serious questions about his temperament.
05:32According to public reporting, Mr. Bovee was the subject of an internal investigation
