Trump Judicial Nominee Won’t Answer Question on Talk of Third Presidential Term

A judicial nominee selected by President Donald Trump is refusing to answer a question about the constitutional provision that prevents presidents from running for a third term in office.

Emil Bove, a former criminal defense attorney for Trump who is currently the principal associate deputy attorney general within the Department of Justice (DOJ), was asked in a questionnaire given to him last week by the Senate Judiciary Committee about the 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution — and whether his current boss should have to abide by it.

That amendment explicitly states that “no person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice.”

Instead of affirming the definitive tone of that amendment, Bove, who has been nominated by Trump to serve on the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals, claimed that it would be inappropriate for him to comment on the matter.

“As a nominee to the Third Circuit, it would not be appropriate for me to address how this Amendment would apply in an abstract hypothetical scenario,” Bove wrote.

While he did quote the 22nd Amendment directly in his written answer, he again refused to answer the question, stating:

To the extent this question seeks to elicit an answer that could be taken as opining on the broader political or policy debate regarding term limits, or on statements by any political figure, my response, consistent with the positions of prior judicial nominees, is that it would be improper to offer any such comment as a judicial nominee.

While judicial nominees often opt not to answer specific questions, Bove’s refusal to comment on such a direct and clear amendment could alarm some members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is set to vote on Thursday on whether to advance his nomination to full Senate consideration.

Bove’s response — or lack thereof — comes as Trump has frequently expressed interest in running for president again, even saying in interviews that he’s “not joking” about the matter.

Bove also faces scrutiny over how he has managed staff at the DOJ. A whistleblower report submitted last month by a former Justice Department employee alleges that Bove told colleagues that the administration should ignore court orders that are stymying some of Trump’s executive orders, particularly those that rely on declarations of “emergencies” to push his anti-immigrant agenda.

According to Erez Reuveni, the former employee who filed the report, there were at least three attempts by DOJ officials working under Bove to thwart those rulings. When Reuveni tried to correct their actions, he was “threatened, fired and publicly disparaged,” he said.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche brushed off the complaint, claiming that Reuveni is nothing more than a “disgruntled former employee.” But supporting documents obtained by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Illinois), the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, suggest that Reuveni’s allegations have some merit.

The documents obtained by Durbin don’t detail any of Bove’s direct actions — but they do showcase that employees working under him indeed considered the idea of ignoring court orders.

“Guess we’re going to say fuck you to the court,” one text message included in those documents reads.

Durbin said the document serves to show Reuveni is a “loyal public servant” and that Bove “belongs nowhere near the federal bench.”

“This is about more than a random f-bomb,” Durbin said in a statement. “This is a declaration of defiance of our courts at the highest level of our government by a man who now seeks a lifetime appointment to one of the highest courts in our land.”

“If Mr. Bove simply ‘can’t recall’ any of this and demands his subordinates compromise their professional obligations, he doesn’t have the moral judgment or character to serve in a lifetime position on the federal court,” Durbin added.