U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA) released a 12-minute video (below) about Emil Bove, the Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General at the Department of Justice, who President Donald Trump has nominated for as a circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
Note: While a partner at Todd Blanche‘s law firm in New York, as a criminal attorney, Bove represented Trump in the federal classified documents and election obstruction cases prior to Trump’s return to the White House. Blanche is Deputy Attorney General at DOJ serving under AG Pam Bondi.
With the video, Schiff wrote: “Donald Trump has effectively already selected his next Supreme Court Justice. And he’s just about as bad as it gets.”
(In the video, Schiff lists several reasons why “you should care about Emil Bove,” including complaints about his behavior as a prosecutor in the Southern District of New York.)
Donald Trump has effectively already selected his next Supreme Court Justice.
And he’s just about as bad as it gets. Let’s talk about Emil Bove. pic.twitter.com/QrQFMkBp6u
— Adam Schiff (@SenAdamSchiff) June 18, 2025
On the other side of the aisle, FTC chairman Andrew Ferguson and two former Republican chief counsels Michael Fragoso and Mike Davis, endorsed Bove with an op-ed article titled, ‘Emil Bove will make an excellent circuit court judge,’ published by The Hill.
The three men wrote: “We know this because the three of us shepherded 252 Article III judges to confirmation under President Trump as Republican chief counsels for nominations on the Senate Judiciary Committee under Chairmen Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC).”
Politico‘s DOJ writer Ankush Khardori supported Schiff’s theory when he reported on Monday: “Longtime members of the conservative legal establishment also worry that Bove, if confirmed to the Third Circuit, could become a leading contender to fill the next vacancy on the Supreme Court, if and when that happens in Trump’s current term.”
Khardori added the question: “Will Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito or Clarence Thomas step down during Trump’s second term — thereby tacitly giving their approval to whomever Trump nominates to replace them?”
Thomas turns 77 next week, Alito is 74. Of course not all Justices step down: Ruth Bader Ginsburg “retired” from the Supreme Court on September 15, 2020, when she died at the age of 87.