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Senate confirms Emil Bove to Third Circuit, as Dems fail to thwart Trump pick

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Emil Bove, President Donald Trump’s former criminal defense attorney, has been confirmed to a lifetime seat on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals — the culmination of a tumultuous campaign from his detractors that ultimately fractured his support among the Senate GOP.

The Senate voted 50-49 to confirm Bove, with Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska defecting from the rest of their party to join all Democrats in opposing.

Bove was plagued by reports of whistleblowers alleging that he recommended the administration ignore court orders that would disrupt Trump’s aggressive immigration agenda. His nomination became a flashpoint battle for Democrats, who argued the current principal associate deputy attorney general had made clear he valued fealty to the president over the law and was therefore unfit for the federal bench.

“Look at his record: Emil Bove has shown time and time again his disrespect for the very office he seeks to hold,” said Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), pointing to the whistleblower’s allegations, during a recent speech on the Senate floor. “I don’t know of another case I have seen in my 14 years in the Senate where someone so unqualified for the bench is before us.”

Booker was among Bove’s chief antagonists, with New Jersey being among the states from where the newly-confirmed judge would hear appeals — along with Delaware, Pennsylvania and the Virgin Islands.

Trump has long taken pride in his selections for the federal judiciary, of which there were hundreds during his first term, and he has also indicated he expects from his judges, in turn, a degree of loyalty. That pressure has only become more acute during Trump’s second term, as he has taken to targeting federal judges who have presented obstacles to his administration’s agenda.

In plenty of ways, Bove fits the mold of Trump judicial nominees. But Bove’s allegiance to Trump goes deeper than those of Trump’s previous judicial picks. Before joining the DOJ as a top agency official, Bove represented Trump in criminal probes around the retention of classified documents and efforts to subvert the results of the 2020 election.

The cases were ultimately dismissed after Trump’s 2024 electoral victory, and not long after, some of his onetime attorneys, including Bove, joined the upper ranks of his administration. Todd Blanche, who worked with Bove on those cases, is now deputy attorney general.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said in a brief interview last week he had urged his Democratic colleagues to make the case, as a party on the Senate floor, to the American people that Bove was unfit for the lifetime appointment due to his record and his loyalty to Trump.

“Essentially, it’s loyalty to Donald Trump … despite all of these utterly sickening failing[s],” Blumenthal said.

Democrats devoted significant time and resources to fighting the Bove nomination, from floor speeches to remarks at their weekly press conference led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

They pointed to Bove’s role in the dismissal of federal corruption charges against Eric Adams — a move that prompted questions over whether the Democratic mayor of New York City had engaged in a quid pro quo to have the case dropped in exchange for cooperating with federal immigration enforcement officials at the Rikers jail facility. Democrats also decried Bove’s role in the dismissal of prosecutors who worked on cases in the Biden administration tied to the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.

Judiciary Committee Democrats also staged a protest, walking out of the committee markup to advance the Bove nomination when committee chair Chuck Grassley said he would pause proceedings rather than allow members of the minority party to continue airing their grievances. At one point, Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) shouted that the committee had devolved into a “kangaroo court.”

Three whistleblowers also came forward over the course of Bove’s confirmation process to lodge allegations against the nominee. Erez Reuveni, a former Justice Department official who worked with Bove, detailed Bove’s recommendation to defy the immigration court orders. Democrats sought to hold a hearing where Reuveni could testify under oath. Grassley declined the request, and doubled down on the Senate floor Tuesday against insinuations that he was shirking his responsibility to thoroughly vet Bove’s credentials.

“No one can say that I don’t take whistleblower complaints seriously, or that I don’t investigate allegations in good faith,” said Grassley, the 91-year-old co-founder of the Senate Whistleblower Protection Caucus. “I’ve always said that my door is open to whistleblowers, and my efforts regarding the Bove nomination show this is true.”

A second whistleblower, represented by the nonprofit group Whistleblower Aid, claimed to support the complaint, while Grassley’s staff met with attorneys for a third whistleblower Monday. Democrats said this was further proof that Bove’s nomination should be reconsidered — but Grassley countered that Democrats had mishandled the whistleblower’s allegations and questioned the late timing, given a final vote on Bove was poised to take place in the coming days.

“My message to the three whistleblowers is this: just because I may disagree with the conclusions in a whistleblower disclosure, it doesn’t mean that I don’t support a whistleblower’s right to come forward,” Grassley said Tuesday.

Democrats’ case against Bove resonated with Collins, who has split with Trump on a number of nominees more than seven months into the president’s second term.

“We have to have judges who will adhere to the rule of law and the Constitution and do so regardless of what their personal views may be,” she said in a statement. “Mr. Bove’s political profile and some of the actions he has taken in his leadership roles at the Department of Justice cause me to conclude he would not serve as an impartial jurist.”

But Democrats ultimately couldn’t peel off the two other Republicans necessary to thwart Bove’s confirmation. Republicans could have lost up to three senators in and still confirmed the nominee with Vice President JD Vance as the tiebreaking vote. Among the other potential defectors, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), member of the Judiciary panel, had effectively sunk the confirmation chances for Trump’s previous U.S. attorney nominee for the District of Columbia. But in the case of Bove, Tillis said he was hesitant to place weight in the anonymous complaints.

Senate Judiciary ranking member Dick Durbin said he was not surprised by Bove’s inevitable confirmation. He pointed to the fact that Attorney General Pam Bondi made an appearance in person at his confirmation hearing — an unusual move for a judicial nominee that underscored the pressure Republicans were under to endorse Trump’s pick.

Still, he decried the lack of Republican interest in getting to the bottom of the allegations against Bove: “They can’t answer the basic question: why wouldn’t you allow a whistleblower under oath to tell their story as to what he did and lied about before our committee?” Durbin said of his Republican colleagues. “They’re not interested.”

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Congress

GOP Rep. Mills accused of threatening to release nude videos of ex-girlfriend

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A woman who said she had been in a relationship with Rep. Cory Mills has accused the Republican member of Congress from Florida of threatening to release nude videos of her after she broke off their relationship, according to a police report.

Lindsey Langston, a Florida Republican state committee member and 2024 winner of the Miss United States beauty pageant, told authorities on July 14 that Mills also threatened to harm any of her future romantic partners, according to a report she made to the Columbia County Sheriff’s Department that was obtained Tuesday by Blue Light News.

Her allegations were sent to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for review, said Steven Khachigan, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s department. The FDLE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mills, who has represented a district south of Daytona Beach since 2023, has not been charged and told Blue Light News in a statement that he was unaware of the police report.

“We have not been made aware of any report or allegations from law enforcement or the alleged complainant,” Mills said. “These claims are false and misrepresent the nature of my interactions. I have always conducted myself with integrity, both personally and in service to Florida’s 7th District.”

The incident was first reported Tuesday by Blaze Media and Drop Site News.

Langston told the sheriff’s department that she was in a relationship with Mills from November 2021 until February, when she said she ended it after seeing media reports that police in Washington were called to investigate an alleged assault by the representative against a woman.

Both Mills and the woman denied that any assault took place, and Mills was not charged in the incident.

Langston said that Mills told her he was separated from his wife at the time they started their relationship. The representative is still married.

She told police that after she broke up with him, Mills contacted her multiple times threatening to release nude images and videos of them having sex, according to the report, which said she provided law enforcement with messages that allegedly backed up her claims.

Anthony Sabatini, Langston’s attorney and a Lake County, Florida commissioner who challenged Mills for Congress in 2022, said Langston also filed a restraining order against Mills. Blue Light News has not independently confirmed the restraining order.

In a statement, Mills told Blue Light News he believes Sabatini is “weaponizing the legal system to launch a political attack.”

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Comer issues subpoenas for DOJ’s Epstein files, depositions with former officials

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The House Oversight Committee on Tuesday issued subpoenas for Department of Justice records on the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, as well as for interviews with a slate of former government officials in connection to the case.

Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) announced that he was summoning nearly a dozen former officials to appear for depositions on the Epstein investigation — a list that includes former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Former U.S. Attorneys General William Barr, Alberto Gonzales, Jeff Sessions, Loretta Lynch, Eric Holder and Merrick Garland, as well as former FBI Directors Robert Mueller and James Comey were also tapped to give testimony in connection to the case.

Comer was required to send the subpoenas after a Democratic-led subcommittee vote in July.

The move is the latest in a broader battle over the Epstein files, which took the Trump administration by storm last month as anger boiled over from within MAGA circles about the administration’s handling of the case.

The committee’s subpoena of Bill Clinton in particular seems more symbolic than substantive. No former president has ever testified to Congress under the compulsion of a subpoena — and lawmakers have tried only twice before: once in 1953, when the House Un-American Activities Committee subpoenaed Harry Truman, and once in 2022, when the Jan. 6 select committee subpoenaed Donald Trump.

Neither president testified in those instances, and the Justice Department has long cited Truman’s example — though not backed by any legal precedent — to suggest that it is improper for Congress to compel even former presidents to testify, given separation of powers concerns.

While the president has tried to brush off the growing outcry — and lashed out at The Wall Street Journal over its report of a letter he allegedly wrote to the disgraced financier for his birthday, which he denies authoring — Republicans have split over their approach to the issue.

Trump has publicly raged about the case, suggesting it was a Democratic plant to undermine him. He’s also sought to mollify his angry base, directing Attorney General Pam Bondi to seek the release of grand jury documents amid outrage from within his own MAGA sphere, although it is not clear if there would be anything revelatory in those documents.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche also met with Epstein co-conspirator and convicted sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell last month amid the heightened public pressure.

Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for child sex trafficking and other crimes, was moved to a minimum-security federal prison camp in Texas just days after her meetings with Blanche — a transfer that came as Trump has made clear that a pardon for the convicted sex offender is within his purview.

Kyle Cheney contributed to this report.

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Trump-Schumer standoff heads for fall rematch

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Donald Trump and Chuck Schumer went head-to-head last week for the first time in nearly six months. Turns out they were only shadow-boxing — and the real bout is still to come.

The president pulled the plug on a possible deal to confirm some administration nominees, while the Senate’s top Democrat — under pressure from his party to take a tougher stand — boasted afterward that Trump came away with nothing.

Now, the two men are headed toward a fall rematch with much higher stakes: whether to keep the federal government open past a Sept. 30 funding deadline.

Despite decades of history between them, their relationship is now almost nonexistent. They haven’t had a formal one-on-one meeting since Trump’s second inauguration. And they did not speak directly as part of the nominations negotiations, according to two people granted anonymity to discuss private details.

The unraveling of a typical pre-summer-recess nominations deal has many on Capitol Hill concerned about what is to come. While other congressional leaders are sure to figure into the negotiations, it’s Schumer — who will determine whether Senate Democrats filibuster spending legislation — and Trump — who has to sign any shutdown-averting bill — who will be the key players.

“It would be better if those two negotiated,” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) said of Trump and Schumer.

Cramer said Senate Majority Leader John Thune served last week as the “arbitrator” ferrying between the “bare-knuckled” New Yorkers during the recent nominations fight. And Speaker Mike Johnson will have his hands full trying to keep his thin majority united behind a spending strategy that will keep the pressure on Democrats.

Democrats believe the onus is on Thune and Johnson to wrangle Trump — the dominant leader of their party — and convince him to come to the table. They are using their hardball tactics over nominations as a warning shot for the fall funding fight.

“Sooner or later, Donald Trump — Mr. ‘Art of the Deal,’ or so he claims — is going to have to learn that he has to work with Democrats if he wants to get deals, good deals, that help the American people,” Schumer said late Saturday night as the Senate prepared to leave town for the summer. “Going at it alone will be a failed strategy.”

Trump’s decision to temporarily abandon his confirmations push rather than give in to what he called “political extortion” from Schumer allowed the embattled Democratic leader to do a pre-recess victory lap after taking heat from the party base for months.

Schumer came under fierce criticism in March for helping to advance a shutdown-avoiding spending bill written solely by Republicans. He warned at the time that a shutdown would only empower Trump and that the dynamic would be different come September as, he predicted, Trump became more unpopular. Nine other members of his caucus joined him.

Trump initially urged Republicans to stay in Washington until all of the roughly 150 pending nominees were confirmed — a demand that could have essentially erased the Senate’s planned four-week recess.

But Schumer and Democrats demanded that Trump unfreeze congressionally approved spending in return for consenting to the swift approval of some nominees. Trump would not pay the price.

In a post where he blasted “Senator Cryin’ Chuck Schumer,” Trump instructed senators to go home. Republicans flirted with adjourning the Senate to let Trump make recess appointments, but that would have required recalling the House — and reviving the Trump-centered drama over the Jeffrey Epstein files. Instead, they are vowing to pursue a rules change later this year to quickly push Trump’s nominees through the Senate.

Schumer relished the Truth Social post, putting a poster-sized version on display next to him as he spoke to reporters Saturday night and comparing it to a “fit of rage.”

He kept the heat on Monday, joining with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries to demand a so-called “four corners” meeting with Thune and Johnson to discuss a government funding strategy lest a government shutdown hit Oct. 1. (Republicans, who accuse Schumer of “breaking” the funding process, haven’t responded.)

Though Schumer and Thune have had informal talks about September, they haven’t delved beyond the broad strokes. The South Dakota Republican, asked about Trump and Schumer, predicted the two will have an “evolving relationship.”

“At some point, obviously, there are certain things they are just going to have to figure out, because on some of these things where we need 60 [votes] there are going to have to be conversations,” Thune said in a brief interview.

Schumer and Thune joined 85 other senators to advance the chamber’s first bipartisan funding package late last week, in a show of unity that senators hope will pave the way for another package of spending bills in September. But Congress is still expected to need a short-term funding patch by Oct. 1, and there are early signs of splinters among Republicans about what that step should look like.

But the nomination fight also underscores that Trump is the ultimate wild card heading into the showdown.

At various points heading into and over the weekend, Republicans and Democrats appeared to believe they were close to an agreement and just needed Trump’s blessing, only for it to unravel.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said that Schumer’s “satisfaction” in the wake of the nominations showdown is justified but added it was impossible to predict if Trump would come to the table in September.

“One of the most striking and salient facts about Donald Trump is his unpredictability,” he said.

Schumer and Senate Democrats have been trying to game out multiple scenarios in closed-door caucus meetings. They have also been discussing what demands to make in exchange for their votes to fund the government. Those could range from an ironclad commitment from Republicans that they won’t agree to more claw back more funding or seeking policy concessions, such as unfreezing foreign aid or National Institutes of Health funds, or pursuing a deal on soon-to-expire Affordable Care Act tax credits.

Democrats have their own internal fault lines to manage. Already Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman is vowing to vote to keep the government open, while others like Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts are striking a more combative tone.

Republicans’ unwillingness to commit to rejecting future spending clawbacks, she said, shows “the budget negotiations weren’t worth the paper they were written on.”

But Schumer, for now, is savoring the moment. After he wrapped up his news conference Saturday night, the smiling Democratic leader insisted his party was “more effective and more unified than the Republicans” as he kibitzed with reporters.

“What do you think — the art of the deal?” he asked, his arm around a poster-board display of Trump’s “Cryin’ Chuck” post.

Jake Traylor contributed to this report. 

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