WALKER WILDMON: From Defender To Nominee: What We Still Don’t Know About Emil Bove

Emil Bove defended President Trump from some of the gravest abuses of the criminal justice system in our nation’s history. These abuses include high-profile lawfare such as the criminal prosecution resulting from President Trump’s legitimate challenge of the very questionable 2020 election, the prosecution involving the business records in New York, and a challenge to the appointment of Special Counsel Jack Smith to investigate alleged “election interference” by the president.

In defending the president in these matters and others, Bove has proven to be a nominee of tested courage, true to his declaration before the Senate Judiciary Committee that he is “not afraid to make difficult decisions . . . . [is] not anybody’s henchman . . . . [has] taken an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States more than once, and [has] honored that oath.”

It is important to note that at the peak of the lawfare lodged against President Trump, the president’s attorneys faced penalties as severe as disbarment, indictment or other sanctions as a result of zealously advocating for their client. Bove’s defense of President Trump is courageous and admirable. (RELATED: ‘This Is Outrageous!’: Dem Senators Throw Tantrum, Walk Out Of Meeting To Protest Trump Judicial Nominee Vote)

Despite, or perhaps because of, his demonstrated courage, Bove’s nomination [to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit], now proceeding to the floor of the full Senate for a vote, has been challenged by his and President Trump’s opponents, including questionable allegations of misconduct in dealings with attorneys and litigants, allegations of criminal contempt, and the disapproval of over 75 former state and federal judges who penned a July 15 letter to the Senate opposing Bove’s nomination due to an alleged, “egregious record of mistreating law enforcement officers, abusing power, and disregarding the law itself . . . .”

Other reports contradict this view of Bove, with Trump defense counsel Christopher Kise stating that Bove is “exceptionally intelligent, and respectful of differing viewpoints,” and another who knew Bove from back in his college days stating that, even at that time, “Bove stood out for his sharp intellect and grueling work ethic.”

As continued unjust legal assaults against the president in recent times have demonstrated, we urgently need federal judges who are not activists looking to effectuate personal political whims but rather are dedicated to their proper role of deciding cases under the law — regardless of their taste or distaste for the parties or policies before them, and regardless of how popular opinion will perceive their proper judicial decisions.

We at AFA Action’s Center for Judicial Renewal have hoped that we could rank Bove as a “confirm” or “priority confirm” nominee and subsequently support his nomination. After all, Bove is a nominee who has exhibited fearlessness in the face of formidable displays of the abuse of power, making him in some ways exactly the type of nominee we view as an asset to the administration of justice on the federal bench. However, the last 50 years of failed Republican judicial nominations have taught us to review the full record of judicial nominees. It is not the information contained within Bove’s record that concerns us, but rather the information absent — in other words, the lack of a complete record.

Our standard for evaluating judicial nominees considers not just whether a nominee has shown courage — which Bove surely has — but also evidence over an array of areas, including: faith and the public square, religious liberty, sanctity of life, LGBT issues, faith and worldview, second amendment, education issues, administrative state, history of commitment to causes, government overreach and judicial philosophy. As we have researched Bove, we have been unable to locate any substantive information in Bove’s record on the areas that are most crucial to social conservatives: faith and the public square, religious liberty, sanctity of life or LGBT issues. By contrast, President Trump’s excellent pending nominee to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, Josh Divine, has a record with at least 13 instances of substantive information in those same four key areas. Moreover, evidence in Divine’s record spans work for clients, as well as displays or statements indicative of Divine’s personal convictions on these vital issues. Without any insights into Bove’s record in these categories, it is impossible to brief our friends and allies as to how he would perform on the bench.

Sadly, social conservatives have a tragic history of being burned on judicial nominees. One need look no further than Justice Neil Gorsuch’s sometimes spotty record and his shocking 2020 opinion in Bostock that used the 1964 Civil Rights Act to create a new transgender “right” to cross-dress in the workplace.

We wish we could inform our friends and allies that Emil Bove has a record full of affirmative evidence that he would never legislate from the bench in favor of leftist policy. Unfortunately, we cannot. However, we can say that he is a man of demonstrable courage. And we are very pleased to say that he, President Trump and our federal courts remain in our most fervent prayers.

Walker Wildmon serves as a Vice President of American Family Association (AFA) and as a spokesperson for AFA. He has been quoted by CNN, Fox News and other major news outlets. He also serves as Chief Executive Officer and Member of the Board of Directors of AFA Action. Wildmon graduated from Mississippi State University with a degree in political science. He lives in Tupelo, Mississippi with his wife Lexie and their five children.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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