New Whistleblower Says Trump Judicial Nominee Lied in Senate Hearing
Senior Justice Department official Emil Bove is the subject of yet another whistleblower complaint, this time alleging that he lied to lawmakers during his Senate confirmation hearing last month.
The Washington Post reviewed documentation that conflicts with statements Donald Trump’s former lawyer made before the Senate Judiciary Committee about a Justice Department prosecution. The Post has chosen to withhold details to protect the identity of the whistleblower.
Two other Justice Department whistleblowers have claimed that Bove told subordinates that they may need to ignore court orders blocking the mass removal of immigrants under the Alien Enemies Act.
One of those whistleblowers was Erez Reuveni, a former DOJ prosecutor who was removed from his position after openly admitting his frustration that the government had “made a choice here to produce no evidence” to support its allegations about Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
“Bove stated that DOJ would need to consider telling the courts ‘fuck you’ and ignore any such court order,” he wrote in his report.
Bove’s confirmation hearing took a rough turn after he repeatedly refused to discuss his work at the DOJ, supplying scant responses to some questions and claiming deliberative process privilege for others.
When asked about his involvement in an alleged scheme to launch a criminal investigation with former interim D.C. Attorney Ed Martin to seize Environmental Protection Agency greenhouse gas reduction funds, Bove balked.
“I’m not aware of such a ‘plan,’ but I did participate in the matter that you are referring to,” Bove replied. When pressed, he said simply, “My answer is limited to, ‘I participated in the matter,’” a phrase he repeated over and over again.
The Department of Homeland Security lied about the protests against last month’s immigration raids in Los Angeles, and now its cases against protesters are getting tossed out.
A report from The Guardian Monday highlighted the shameful discrepancies between some of DHS’s claims and the reality of the unrest in Los Angeles. Inaccurate and misleading testimonies from law enforcement officers have resulted in the dismissal of eight felony cases against protesters and three cases against people who allegedly interfered with immigration raid arrests.
Just two weeks after they were filed, prosecutors filed a motion to dismiss the charges against four people, “in the interest of justice,” due to a litany of errors that were discovered in the officers’ testimony.
Social media footage documenting the arrest of two sisters, Ashley and Joceline Rodriguez, directly contradicted the criminal complaint submitted by DHS that Ashley had pushed an officer. Instead, footage showed that the officer had pushed her. The complaint said that Joceline had “grabbed the arm” of one of the officers detaining her sister, but the video shows she only briefly touched it.
Key witness Eduardo Mejorado, a border patrol agent, admitted that he had misstated the order of events. Mejorado said that three men, Christian Cerna-Camacho, Brayan Ramos-Brito, and Jose Mojica, engaged officers in response to the arrests of the Rodriguez sisters. In fact, the sisters were detained after the three men.
A video presented by defense showed an officer pushing Ramos-Brito, who had allegedly “pushed [an] agent in the chest.” Mojica, who allegedly “used his body to physically shield” Ramos-Brito and then “elbowed” an officer, was taken to the ground with Ramos-Brito. The video did not show Mojica assault the officers.
Cerna-Camacho, who allegedly made threatening remarks against immigration officers, still faces pending charges, but their lawyers have argued that the case must be dismissed because the indictment listed the wrong name.
Of the nine cases alleging that protesters assaulted law enforcement officers and impeded them from doing their jobs, seven have already been dismissed by prosecutors. The DOJ has filed lower-level misdemeanors against six of the defendants in six of the dismissed felony cases.
These glaring errors should be setting off alarm bells for careful readers, as DHS officials have taken to vastly overstating the rate of assaults against its officers and using it as justification for militarizing Donald Trump’s deportation scheme. With a little scrutiny, their claims tend to fall apart. Already, multiple grand juries have refused to indict protesters arrested during the anti-ICE demonstrations, sending Trump’s lead prosecutor shrieking to high heaven.
MAGA Representative Mike Collins of Georgia has his work cut out for him as he enters the 2026 Republican Senate primary field.
His GOP challengers will include another MAGA candidate and likely also former college football coach Derek Dooley, who reportedly has Governor Brian Kemp’s support. Meanwhile, Democratic spokesperson Devon Cruz told Fox News that incumbent Democrat Jon Ossoff is “building massive momentum to take on whichever Donald Trump loyalist limps over the finish line.”
Collins, for his part, stumbled right out of the gate, with an early campaign video that misspells the name of the state he’s running in.
In the video ad, posted to Collins’s campaign account on X late Sunday, the lawmaker says, “We’ve got to be absolutely unrelenting. We’ve got to be unafraid to fight. We’ve got to be unafraid to call balls and strikes, a spade a spade. And I think y’all have seen I don’t mind doing that.” An audio clip of Donald Trump speaking approvingly of Collins plays, before the Georgia Republican chimes back in: “We’re gonna put the hammer down, and we’re gonna get it done.”
The video shows various B-roll footage, mostly of Collins, as text flashes on the screen accompanying his monologue. It all leads up to the end card, which absolutely bungles the landing: “GEORIGA, LET’S RIDE.”
“Oof, tough typo in an early Senate campaign ad,” wrote Amber Duke of the right-wing Daily Caller news site.
Critics of Collins relished the mistake in his replies, where some concerned supporters also pointed out the error: “Take it down! Quick,” pleaded one MAGA account on X, with another conservative © New Republic
