- In full:
- Emil Joseph Bove III
Emil Bove: A Look at Trump’s Nominee for the U.S. Court of Appeals
What role has Emil Bove played in Donald Trump’s administration?
What is Emil Bove’s educational background?
What controversy was Emil Bove involved in during his time at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York?
How did Emil Bove contribute to Donald Trump’s legal defense?
Why was Emil Bove’s nomination to the United States Third Circuit Court of Appeals controversial?
Emil Bove (born 1981, Geneva, New York) is the principal associate deputy attorney general in U.S. Pres. Donald Trump’s second administration (2025– ) and a Senate-confirmed nominee for a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, which oversees Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Bove’s nomination to the Third Circuit was officially approved by the U.S. Senate in late July 2025. During the first months of Trump’s second term, Bove served as the U.S. Justice Department’s principal associate deputy attorney general. Before he joined Justice Department, Bove was a defense attorney for Trump in 2023 and 2024.
Education and early career
Bove grew up in Seneca Falls, New York, where his father, Emil Bove, Jr., worked as an attorney. He attended Mynderse Academy, a public high school, where he played football (soccer), basketball, and lacrosse. In 1999 he graduated as salutatorian of his class. He studied at the State University of New York at Albany, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in public policy and economics in 2003. He then spent two years working as a paralegal (legal assistant) at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY).
In 2005 Bove began his law studies at the Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C., where he worked as a research assistant for Nicholas Rosenkranz, a law professor who also served on the board of directors of the conservative Federalist Society. After earning a Juris Doctor in 2008, Bove worked until 2009 as a clerk for Richard Sullivan, a federal district court judge for the SDNY, and until 2010 for Richard Wesley, an appeals court judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Federal prosecutor at the Southern District of New York
After his clerkships, Bove joined the prestigious firm Sullivan & Cromwell in New York City. In 2012 he returned to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the SDNY, initially as an assistant attorney and later (in 2019) as a joint supervisor of the office’s international narcotics and terrorism unit. He also played a major role in the prosecution and conviction of the brother of Honduran Pres. Juan Orlando Hernández on drug trafficking and weapons-related charges in 2021. (In 2024, two years after leaving office, Hernández himself was convicted of the same crimes.)
As an attorney in the SDNY, Bove struck many of his colleagues as remarkably aggressive, vindictive, angry, and abusive in his treatment of opposing counsel and even in his interactions with other prosecutors. In 2018 an email sent to Bove’s superiors cited numerous complaints from a group of Manhattan defense attorneys who claimed that Bove had “violated policy in egregious ways,” that he was “completely reckless and out of control,” and that he was “quick to bully and threaten.” Following his appointment as a unit supervisor, his objectionable behavior continued, according to internal complaints circulated by colleagues and staff members.
In 2020 Bove was involved in an economic sanctions case that was ultimately dismissed after the judge determined that Bove’s team had concealed evidence that would have aided defense attorneys and then lied to the court about it. The judge in the case cited a text message sent by Bove in which he admitted that his team had told a “flat lie” about the evidence.
Bove also played a role in the investigation and prosecution of people who participated in the January 6 U.S. Capitol attack in 2021. He “never voiced any apprehension about the investigations we were doing,” a former colleague told The Wall Street Journal in February 2025—in fact, the colleague said, Bove pushed for his office to have a greater role in the probe.
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In light of Bove’s behavior and his mishandling of the economic sanctions case, an executive committee of the SDNY concluded in 2020 or early 2021 that he should be demoted from his supervisory role. Although he was able to retain his position after pledging to improve his behavior, he resigned from the SDNY in late 2021 and joined a private law firm in New Jersey.
Defense attorney for Donald Trump
In 2023 Todd Blanche, also a former SDNY attorney, invited Bove to join him in defending Trump against federal and state criminal charges of attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election, illegally removing and hiding classified documents, and falsifying business records in order to conceal his hush money payment to an adult film star. Bove dedicated himself completely to these cases, working late at night to draft briefs, and he impressed Trump with his aggressive cross-examinations of witnesses. Although Trump was convicted of falsifying business records, he was not sentenced to prison because of his impending inauguration following his victory in the presidential election of 2024. (Trump’s classified documents case was dismissed by a federal district court in Florida, and his election case was effectively postponed until after his second term.)
Principal associate deputy attorney general
After Trump’s inauguration in January 2025, Bove became the principal associate deputy attorney general, the third highest post in the Justice Department; he also briefly served as deputy attorney general, the second highest post. Under Attorney General Pam Bondi, Bove became a formidable agent of Trump’s uncompromising deportation agenda and his goal of removing Justice Department personnel, including FBI agents, who had investigated or prosecuted him on federal charges. One of Bove’s first acts was to tell prosecutors to consider criminal charges against state and local officials who do not assist federal immigration agencies with deportations. He later requested a list of all personnel who had investigated the January 6 attack or were involved in its prosecution (even though Bove himself also worked on the case). In late January 2025 Bove gave more than half a dozen senior FBI officials the choice of resigning or being fired.
Bove also ordered federal prosecutors to drop their pending bribery case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Some of the prosecutors accused Bove of arranging a quid pro quo with Adams, wherein the mayor promised to help with immigration enforcement in exchange for having his charges dropped. According to a Justice Department whistleblower, Bove also told top officials that if judges tried to stop them from deporting immigrants without warning or due process, they should consider ignoring the judges’ orders. (The whistleblower himself had been fired for admitting in a federal court that the government had erred in sending an immigrant to a prison in El Salvador after a judge had barred his deportation.) Although Bove denied the accusation, the whistleblower provided emails and text messages supporting his claim. A second whistleblower later made the same accusation, and a third alleged that Bove had lied to lawmakers during his Senate confirmation hearing.
Nomination to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals and Senate confirmation
In May Trump nominated Bove to a seat on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. The nomination proved extremely controversial. Even before his official nomination, Bove was severely criticized by some conservatives, including the legal commentator Ed Whelan, a prominent associate of the Federalist Society. Additionally, in a letter filed with leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee in July, one day before the committee’s hearing was scheduled to begin, more than 900 former Justice Department employees urged the committee to reject Bove’s nomination, saying he had helped lead an “assault” on the department.
On July 17, during Bove’s confirmation hearing, Republican senators on the committee refused to call the first whistleblower to testify, and Democrats walked out. Republicans then advanced Bove’s nomination to the full Senate. The Senate confirmed Bove’s nomination on July 29.