In a 50-49 vote on Tuesday night, the US Senate confirmed Emil Bove III, 44, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, a lifetime appointment. The jurisdiction of the Third Circuit includes Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The court is headquartered in Philadelphia.

No Democrats voted in favor of Bove, while Republican Senators Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) opposed him. Senator Bill Hagerty (Republican-Tennessee) was not present and did not vote.

Bove’s chief qualification for the federal judgeship is his slavish devotion to President Donald Trump and his fascist agenda. Before Trump returned to the White House, Bove served as one of Trump’s personal criminal attorneys in three major federal cases that were brought against him. These include:

• The New York “hush money” trial, which concerned Trump falsifying business records in order to make payments to adult film actor Stormy Daniels during the 2016 campaign. Trump was convicted on 34 felony counts, but sentencing was deferred until after his presidency ends.
• Trump’s hoarding of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort. Trump pleaded not guilty to nearly 40 counts, and the case dragged on for over three years until Trump-appointed US District Court Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the case.
• Trump’s election obstruction case. Trump was charged with four felonies related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election in a scheme that involved fraudulent electors and pressuring Vice President Mike Pence to unilaterally reject electors from states Trump lost. In August 2023, more than two and a half years after the January 6 siege of the Capitol, Trump was charged with conspiracy to defraud the government and obstructing an official proceeding. Jack Smith tried to redo the indictment following the July 2024 Trump v United States Supreme Court ruling which granted Trump immunity for “official acts” but eventually dropped the case after Trump won the election.

Upon Trump’s return to the White House, Bove was named a deputy attorney general at the Department of Justice. Between January and March 2025, Bove acted as Trump’s personal hatchet man. He oversaw the firing of over a dozen DOJ attorneys, who prosecuted Trump’s January 6 fascist foot soldiers. In a memorandum justifying the purge Bove characterized the prosecution of neo-Nazis, Proud Boys and other far-right militia elements that stormed the Capitol as a “grave injustice.”

At the same time Bove was purging DOJ, he also directed the FBI to compile a list of agents and other employees who were involved in the January 6 investigation. When many offices refused to comply, Bove accused them of being insubordinate and ordered the termination of eight senior FBI officials.

Acting under Trump’s direction, Bove secured a quid pro quo deal with New York City Mayor Eric Adams. In exchange for DOJ dropping documented and verifiable corruption charges, Adams agreed to cooperate with Trump’s immigration Gestapo. This arrangement and Bove’s lying testimony concerning it before the Senate are the subjects of one of three whistleblower complaints filed against Bove this year.

Perhaps Bove’s most criminal activity in recent months has been his central role in advancing Trump’s mass deportation operation. According to a well-sourced and documented whistleblower complaint from former DOJ attorney Erez Reuveni, Bove directed DOJ attorneys to violate court orders if they went against the Trump administration.

Reuveni alleged that Bove instructed DOJ attorneys on March 14, 2025 that Trump would invoke the Alien Enemies Act to fast-track the deportation of immigrants without due process. In the meeting, Reuveni alleged that Bove told the government attorneys that the planes would be taking off on March 15 and 16 to transport Venezuelan and Salvadorean migrants to El Salvador “no matter what.” If a judge attempted to block the planes from the leaving, he said, the DOJ’s response should be “fuck you.”

On March 15 Bove’s orders were carried out by DOJ attorneys, who claimed before Judge James Boasberg that they had no idea if or when immigrants would be deported to El Salvador’s “terrorism prison” known as CECOT. Despite Judge Boasberg ordering planes carrying immigrants to be “turned around” on Saturday, over 250 immigrants were kidnapped and forced to languish in the notorious prison for over four months.

That this criminal is not behind bars but instead is ascending to the Third Circuit Court is entirely the fault of the Biden administration and the Democratic Party. The vacancy on the circuit court opened up in 2023 and in November of that year Biden nominated wealthy liberal lawyer Adeel Mangi to the position. Republicans immediately opposed Mangi’s nomination and slurred him as a terrorist supporter because of his Muslim faith.

Despite the Democrats holding a 51-49 majority in the Senate in March 2024, Mangi’s nomination stalled for good. That month, two Nevada Democrats, Senators Jacky Rosen and Catherine Cortez Masto, both of whom are ardent supporters of the genocide in Gaza, announced their opposition to Mangi because of his support for anti-incarceration efforts. That same month West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin (Democrat) announced he would not support any Biden nominee that did not have the support of at least one Republican.

In November 2024 Senator Chuck Schumer made a deal with his “Republican colleagues” to drop Mangi’s nomination and three other appeals court nominees in exchange for Republicans allowing the confirmation of a group of district court candidates.

Given Bove’s comparatively young age and boundless criminal opportunism, there is some speculation that his rise will not end on the Third Circuit but on the Supreme Court in the event a seat falls vacant while Trump is in the White House. The oldest member of the court currently is 77-year-old arch-reactionary and top Trump co-conspirator Clarence Thomas.