Watchdog launches records lawsuit to obtain Emil Bove communications
American Oversight seeks to enforce seven Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests it made in February and March, filing the new lawsuit in the lead-up to Bove's confirmation to a federal judgeship.
'Through Defendant's failure to respond to American Oversight's FOIA request within the time period required by law, American Oversight has exhausted its administrative remedies and now seeks immediate judicial review,' the lawsuit states.
Bove has faced several controversies during his brief tenure. The whistleblower, Erez Reuveni, accused the judicial nominee of saying during a March meeting that the department may need to tell the courts 'f— you' if they try to block swift deportations under the Alien Enemies Act.
Reuveni was fired from the DOJ's immigration section after telling a judge in a separate case that officials had mistakenly deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador's notorious CECOT megaprison.
The FOIA requests include a demand for communications sent by Reuveni, Bove and other top department leadership that mention the prison, the Alien Enemies Act or related terms.
'Over the past six months, information has come to light suggesting that Mr. Bove may have violated his ethical obligations and acted to defy the Constitution and the rule of law, including, most recently, reports that he encouraged other DOJ attorneys to defy court orders,' the lawsuit notes.
Another records request seeks the official's communications involving New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) and any notes from a Jan. 31 meeting about his criminal corruption case. Bove played a key role in pressuring prosecutors to drop the charges against Adams, sparking a wave of prosecutorial resignations before Bove himself signed the motion.
American Oversight previously filed a bar complaint against Bove in New York alleging he potentially committed professional misconduct in the case.
The watchdog group's lawsuit also seeks communications between Bove and Stephen Miller, the architect of the White House's immigration policy; any emails the judicial nominee sent mentioning ethics and employee discipline; any emails he had with tech billionaire Elon Musk or Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) personnel; and any communications Bove sent or received mentioning FBI Director Kash Patel.
Bove had given the order to dismiss prosecutors who worked on the cases of those involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, and demanded a list of FBI agents who worked on such cases.
One of President Trump's former personal criminal defense attorneys, Bove joined DOJ upon Trump's inauguration as its acting No. 2 official. Once Todd Blanche was confirmed to the post, Bove became principal associate deputy attorney general.
Now, the president has nominated Bove to a judgeship on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Democrats scrutinized Bove at his confirmation hearing last month, and his committee vote is expected in the coming weeks.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
‘We've already done that': Missouri lawmakers show little enthusiasm for new congressional maps
Members of the Missouri House review a proposed Congressional map during redistricting debate on Jan. 18, 2022 (photo courtesy of Tim Bommel/Missouri House Communications). As Texas embarks on a special legislative session that includes revising that state's congressional districts to help Republicans, President Donald Trump is reportedly asking for Missouri to do the same. The reaction among legislative leaders, however, is decidedly negative. Asked by text about a report from Punchbowl News on a new redistricting effort, state Senate President Pro Tem Cindy O'Laughlin responded with a horror emoji. 'I know this is a topic being talked about in Washington,' she added, 'but no one has asked us to do anything about redistricting.' Punchbowl reported that U.S. Rep. Bob Onder of Lake St. Louis was at the White House on Tuesday and came away convinced Trump's advisors want Missouri to act. 'The president's team is serious about it,' Onder said to Punchbowl. Missouri has eight seats in the U.S. House, six held by Republicans and two held by Democrats — the same total and partisan division it has had since a seat was lost after the 2010 census. Missouri Senate Minority Leader Doug Beck of Affton said Democrats would fight any effort to change district lines that were just redrawn three years ago. 'This originated out of the White House,' Beck said. 'This is a blatant power grab by an administration desperate to deflect from their cover up of the Epstein files and other things going on.' We've already done that. To do it again would be out of character with the way Missouri operates. – Chad Perkins, speaker pro tem of the Missouri House The 435 seats in the U.S. House are allotted to the states every 10 years based on census results. When Missouri receives its allotment, the state Constitution mandates that lawmakers revise district lines. The last time lines were redrawn between censuses was in the 1960s, following the 1964 U.S. Supreme Court decision that districts had to be drawn as closely as possible in population to preserve equal representation, known as the one person, one vote decision. In 2022, when the current districts were drawn, Republican leaders in the Missouri Senate had to resort to little-used maneuvers to outwit opponents within their caucus who wanted to break up the 5th District and push the partisan split to 7-1. The 5th District, which includes Kansas City and sections of Jackson and Clay counties, has been Democratic for decades. U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, who has held the seat since 2005, was re-elected in November with 60% of the vote. Splitting those votes into adjacent districts, while bringing in enough Republican votes to carry the district, isn't as certain as it may seem to aid the GOP, said state Sen. Mike Cierpiot, a Republican from Lee's Summit. 'There's a lot of Democrats in Jackson County,' Cierpiot said, 'and if it's a map that they promote that, once again, puts two or three of our Republican seats in play in a bad year, I would have trouble supporting that.' The 2022 fight over redistricting came during a four-year period where hard-right conservatives in the state Senate fought almost daily with GOP leadership and its backers. This year, Republicans finally forged a truce that helped make their supermajority, holding two-thirds of the seats, far more effective in moving priority legislation. The fight over redistricting was colored as much by personalities as policy, said U.S. Rep. Eric Burlison, a Republican from Springfield who won the 7th District seat in 2022. Then-state Sen. Bill Eigel of St. Charles, leader of the insurgents, couldn't convince anyone that a 7-1 map was possible and safe for Republicans because of his personal conflicts with the leadership, Burlison said in an interview on Thursday with The Independent. 'It was more about people's personalities than what were the facts,' said Burlison, a state senator at the time. 'What was achievable in that session was marked by that.' Tempers fray as Missouri Senate Republicans fight over Congressional map The conflict was so bad that Eigel and Cierpiot nearly came to blows during a lunch break. It wasn't the only moment where violence was possible, Burlison said. 'There were multiple moments where it almost came close,' he said. In the Missouri House, where it is easier for leadership to shut down debate and quash factionalism, a top Republican leader said there's no reason to revisit the current map. 'We do redistricting every 10 years,' House Speaker Pro Tem Chad Perkins of Bowling Green said. 'We've already done that. To do it again would be out of character with the way Missouri operates.' There may be some willingness to try a new redistricting effort. Cierpiot said he could support it if he is convinced Republicans would not lose seats in years favoring Democrats. But it could backfire, he said. 'Right now, in Missouri, we're in a Republican wonderland,' Cierpiot said. 'We've had decent years, and we haven't had an off year since probably 2008, but I'm old enough to remember those things do cycle through.' State Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, a Republican from Arnold, enthusiastically backs the idea. 'We should have written a 7-1 map' in 2022, she said. 'Our failure to do so almost cost the GOP the majority in Congress. I'm up for it.' It is encouraging, Beck said, that most Republican comments are opposed to the idea of redistricting again. But pressure could change that. 'I don't know how much they're gonna get pushed to change those views,' he said. 'I've watched these people say things before and then change their mind.' There are a lot of legal questions, involving both the federal and state constitutions, that will be played out in the courts in states that try to redraw lines set after the 2020 census, said Justin Levitt, a professor of law at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. Levitt, who monitors redistricting efforts nationwide and was deputy attorney general for civil rights at the end of President Barack Obama's administration, said a redistricting effort in Missouri would create legal issues over minority voter rights. Both of Missouri's Democratic members of Congress, Cleaver and U.S. Rep. Wesley Bell of St. Louis, are Black. To gain a seat, 'you'd have to effectively target the minority communities of St. Louis and Kansas City,' Levitt said. It would also create problems because the stated goal is to increase Republican representation in Congress, he said. 'The Supreme Court has said with crystal clarity that excessive partisan gerrymandering is unconstitutional, that it is inconsistent with basic democratic principles,' Levitt said. 'It said that in the same breath that it also said that the federal courthouse doors are closed to adjudicating that claim, but just because the cops are not outside your door doesn't mean shoplifting is legal.' Missouri's constitution is silent on whether lawmakers have the power to redraw lines outside the 10-year cycle of the census. That silence, Levitt said, would have to be interpreted by the courts. 'Other states have construed that constitutional time in their own state constitutions to say, once every 10 years and no more frequently,' he said. With a 219-212 majority — four seats are vacant, including three previously held by Democrats — Republicans are worried that a small shift in voter sentiment could put them again in the minority. Texas, with a 25-13 split in favor Republicans, is looking at possibly moving five seats to the Republican column, according to the Texas Tribune. It took a telephone call from Trump to Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott to get it on the special session agenda amid concerns that GOP voters might be spread too thin. In retaliation, California Gov. Gavin Newsome has threatened to redraw that state's 52 districts, currently 43-9 in favor of Democrats, to counter the Texas move. So did New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, who told reporters Monday that it's 'too early' to make a definitive statement on the issue, the New Jersey Globe reported, adding he would speak to other Democratic governors about redistricting. With Missouri now involved, it is clear that Trump is looking everywhere he can for new GOP seats, Levitt said. 'They're casting a wide net,' he said. 'The president seems to be abundantly nervous, and it wouldn't surprise me that he is in desperation, looking wherever he can.' Congressional districts are already gerrymandered so the result isn't in question, Beck said. It is already hurting the country and redistricting between censuses makes it worse, he added. U.S. Rep. Ann Wagner, who represents the 2nd District in eastern Missouri, received 54.5% of the vote in November and is the only member of Congress from either party in the state who did not win 60% or more of the vote. 'There's only a select few seats that are actually up for grabs ever. The other ones are safe,' Beck said. 'They've done this over time, and it's a shame. Now the politicians pick their voters, instead of the voters pick their politicians.'
CNN
4 hours ago
- CNN
Wrongfully imprisoned Maryland man who spent 32 years behind bars sues former authorities
A Maryland man who was wrongly imprisoned for 32 years, including a decade on death row, for two killings he did not commit is suing former law enforcement officials in a lawsuit announced Thursday, though four of the five people named as defendants are deceased. John Huffington was pardoned by then-Gov. Larry Hogan in January 2023. Hogan cited prosecutorial misconduct in granting a full innocence pardon to Huffington in connection with a 1981 double slaying in Harford County. A Maryland board approved $2.9 million in compensation for Huffington later that year during Gov. Wes Moore's administration. Huffington said in a statement Thursday that 'it took many, many painful years, but the truth eventually came out.' Just 18 at the time of his arrest, he said neither of his parents ever got to see and understand that his name had been cleared and he was set free. 'All of those years I spent behind bars damaged and strained my relationships, cost me the ability to have a family of my own, cost me the ability to be with my mother when she died, cost me precious time with my father who was in his nineties and suffering from Alzheimer's when I finally was released,' he added. Huffington, 62, always maintained his innocence. He was released from Patuxent Institution in 2013 after serving 32 years of two life sentences. He was convicted twice in the killings known as the 'Memorial Day Murders.' Diane Becker was stabbed to death in her recreational vehicle, while her 4-year-old son, who was inside, was not harmed. Joseph Hudson, Becker's boyfriend, was fatally shot and found a few miles away. A second suspect in the slayings testified against Huffington, was convicted of first-degree murder, and served 27 years. Prosecutors relied on testimony that was later discredited about hair found at the crime scene purportedly matching Huffington's. He appealed his first conviction in 1981. In 1983, a jury found him guilty of first-degree murder and he was sentenced to death. Prosecutors later commuted that sentence to two life terms. Questions about evidence in the case arose when The Washington Post uncovered an FBI report in 2011 that found the FBI agent who analyzed hair evidence in Huffington's case may not have used reliable science, or even tested the hair at all. The report had been written in 1999, but Harford County State's Attorney Joseph Cassilly didn't provide it to Huffington's lawyers. A Frederick County judge vacated Huffington's convictions and ordered a new trial in 2013 after Huffington presented new evidence using DNA testing that was not available during his earlier trials. When the hair evidence was tested for DNA more than 30 years later, the results showed it was not Huffington's hair. Maryland's highest court unanimously voted to disbar Cassilly in 2021. The court found he withheld exculpatory evidence in the 1981 double murder and lied about it in the following years. Cassilly, who maintained he did nothing wrong, retired in 2019. He died in January. His brother, Bob Cassilly, who is now the Harford County executive, said in a statement that his brother was a decorated war hero who was injured while serving his country and served as the county's state's attorney for 36 years while in a wheelchair. 'Joe cannot defend himself in this decades-old matter because he is now deceased, as are the other named defendants, except for one who is almost 80,' Cassilly said. 'Harford County government, in which I currently serve as county executive, has no role in this case – the county was never the defendants' employer.' Huffington also is suing the assistant state's attorney on his case, Gerard Comen, the Harford County government, and the county sheriff's office detectives, David Saneman, William Van Horn and Wesley J. Picha. All but Saneman are now dead, according to the lawsuit filed July 15 in federal court in Baltimore. Saneman told The Washington Post on Wednesday he had not seen or heard of the lawsuit and declined to comment.
CNN
4 hours ago
- CNN
Wrongfully imprisoned Maryland man who spent 32 years behind bars sues former authorities
A Maryland man who was wrongly imprisoned for 32 years, including a decade on death row, for two killings he did not commit is suing former law enforcement officials in a lawsuit announced Thursday, though four of the five people named as defendants are deceased. John Huffington was pardoned by then-Gov. Larry Hogan in January 2023. Hogan cited prosecutorial misconduct in granting a full innocence pardon to Huffington in connection with a 1981 double slaying in Harford County. A Maryland board approved $2.9 million in compensation for Huffington later that year during Gov. Wes Moore's administration. Huffington said in a statement Thursday that 'it took many, many painful years, but the truth eventually came out.' Just 18 at the time of his arrest, he said neither of his parents ever got to see and understand that his name had been cleared and he was set free. 'All of those years I spent behind bars damaged and strained my relationships, cost me the ability to have a family of my own, cost me the ability to be with my mother when she died, cost me precious time with my father who was in his nineties and suffering from Alzheimer's when I finally was released,' he added. Huffington, 62, always maintained his innocence. He was released from Patuxent Institution in 2013 after serving 32 years of two life sentences. He was convicted twice in the killings known as the 'Memorial Day Murders.' Diane Becker was stabbed to death in her recreational vehicle, while her 4-year-old son, who was inside, was not harmed. Joseph Hudson, Becker's boyfriend, was fatally shot and found a few miles away. A second suspect in the slayings testified against Huffington, was convicted of first-degree murder, and served 27 years. Prosecutors relied on testimony that was later discredited about hair found at the crime scene purportedly matching Huffington's. He appealed his first conviction in 1981. In 1983, a jury found him guilty of first-degree murder and he was sentenced to death. Prosecutors later commuted that sentence to two life terms. Questions about evidence in the case arose when The Washington Post uncovered an FBI report in 2011 that found the FBI agent who analyzed hair evidence in Huffington's case may not have used reliable science, or even tested the hair at all. The report had been written in 1999, but Harford County State's Attorney Joseph Cassilly didn't provide it to Huffington's lawyers. A Frederick County judge vacated Huffington's convictions and ordered a new trial in 2013 after Huffington presented new evidence using DNA testing that was not available during his earlier trials. When the hair evidence was tested for DNA more than 30 years later, the results showed it was not Huffington's hair. Maryland's highest court unanimously voted to disbar Cassilly in 2021. The court found he withheld exculpatory evidence in the 1981 double murder and lied about it in the following years. Cassilly, who maintained he did nothing wrong, retired in 2019. He died in January. His brother, Bob Cassilly, who is now the Harford County executive, said in a statement that his brother was a decorated war hero who was injured while serving his country and served as the county's state's attorney for 36 years while in a wheelchair. 'Joe cannot defend himself in this decades-old matter because he is now deceased, as are the other named defendants, except for one who is almost 80,' Cassilly said. 'Harford County government, in which I currently serve as county executive, has no role in this case – the county was never the defendants' employer.' Huffington also is suing the assistant state's attorney on his case, Gerard Comen, the Harford County government, and the county sheriff's office detectives, David Saneman, William Van Horn and Wesley J. Picha. All but Saneman are now dead, according to the lawsuit filed July 15 in federal court in Baltimore. Saneman told The Washington Post on Wednesday he had not seen or heard of the lawsuit and declined to comment.
