Top DOJ Official Emil Bove Told Colleagues He Was Willing to Ignore Court Orders: Whistleblower

The whistleblower alleges he was pressured “to misrepresent facts and present legal arguments without a basis in the law before the courts.”

Emil Bove
JEENAH MOON/AP

A whistleblower complaint filed by a former Justice Department employee accused a senior official, Emil Bove III, of telling colleagues he was open to ignoring court orders to fulfill the administration’s hard-line immigration agenda.

Filed on Tuesday by fired department lawyer Erez Reuveni, the 27-page complaint details his final three weeks working for the administration on its plan to deport migrants to countries they did not immigrate from. That program had been paused until a Monday decision by the Supreme Court, which ruled without explanation that the program could continue while a case makes its way through the court system.

Reuveni alleges he was pressured “to misrepresent facts and present legal arguments without a basis in the law before the courts,” according to a release from the Government Accountability Project, a whistleblower protection organization representing Reuveni.