WASHINGTON, D.C. – This evening, Senator Andy Kim (D-NJ) delivered remarks on the Senate Floor warning colleagues that a vote to confirm President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Emil Bove to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals would be a disaster for New Jersey and the United States justice system while launching a startling new chapter of installing political loyalists to influential positions that will impact our country for generations to come.

Video of Senator Kim’s Full Remarks 

Key quotes from Senator Kim’s full remarks as prepared include: 

“Mr. Bove is unqualified, unfit, and undermines public trust in our justice system.Every report makes one thing clear: he puts politics over justice, loyalty to Donald Trump above all else. We cannot give someone like that a lifetime appointment.”  

“The courts should reflect the promise of America: a nation where the rules apply equally, no matter your wealth or connections, and where fairness guides justice…Emil Bove represents the opposite.”  

“Throughout his career, Mr. Bove has shown he is ethically unfit to be a public servant. He fired career prosecutors — including those working on January 6th investigations — simply because they would not follow politically motivated orders. He openly instructed subordinates to defy court rulings to continue deporting people without due process. And threatened, fired, and publicly disparaged those who refused.”  

“Mr. Bove sought to dismiss the case against New York Mayor Adams. This is not just politics as usual. This is corruption that threatens the integrity of the very justice system Mr. Bove seeks to join.”

“Approving this nomination sends a message that corruption and loyalty to power trumps qualifications and fairness. That is not the future I want for my children, my state, or this country.”

Senator Kim has been raising the alarm over this nomination since it was first announced and previously submitted a ‘Blue Slip’ condemning the decision as an attempt to install Trump loyalists, not objective and qualified nominees, to this position. In June, the Senator provided written testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee raising his concerns about Mr. Bove’s decision to dismiss charges of corruption against New York’s Mayor Eric Adams, as well as Mr. Bove’s loyalty to Trump, and not the law, which will impede judgement when deciding cases and will call into question the neutrality of the Third circuit. Just last week, the Senator sent a letter to the Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee demanding the committee, which Senator Kim is a member of, exercise its oversight capacity of the Department of Homeland Security for ignoring a court order against the deportation of 137 Venezuelans to a prison in El Salvador at the request of Mr. Bove. 

Before being elected to the U.S. Senate, Kim represented New Jersey’s Third Congressional District in the U.S. House and was a career public servant working in national security and diplomacy at the White House, State Department, and Pentagon. Learn more about Senator Kim’s service on behalf of New Jersey here.

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