President Trump’s former personal attorney, Emil Bove, is on the cusp of winning a lifetime appointment to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, which could some day — possibly soon — lead to a Supreme Court nomination. Mr. Bove cleared a procedural hurdle in the Senate last week with only two Republicans dissenting. 

Mr. Bove represented Mr. Trump in his criminal trials in 2023 and 2024 after serving for years as a prosecutor in the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York. After the president’s return to office, Mr. Bove took over as acting deputy attorney general for six weeks at the same time he was serving as principal associate deputy attorney general — a position he still holds that doesn’t require Senate confirmation. 

On Thursday, the Senate voted to invoke cloture — or to proceed to the final stage of debate — on Mr. Bove’s nomination by a margin of 50 to 48. Senators Collins and Murkowski were the only GOP lawmakers to vote no. Two other senators, one Democrat and one Republican, missed the vote. 

The final vote on Mr. Bove’s confirmation is likely to come early this week, either on Monday or Tuesday. Democrats will be allotted only one hour of debate on Mr. Bove’s potential judgeship before the vote is called. 

During his time at the Department of Justice, Mr. Bove has been accused of improperly trying to influence Mayor Adams by having the criminal charges against him dismissed. Mr. Bove was also accused by a whistleblower of openly suggesting that the Trump administration consider defying court orders that go against its deportation efforts.

The whistleblower, Erez Reuveni, claimed in a complaint to the DOJ’s inspector general that Mr. Bove floated the idea of telling federal judges, “F— you,” if they tried to stall or block the president’s deportation plans. That complaint was first obtained by the New York Times. 

During his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Mr. Bove did not deny the accusation but said he could not recall if such a thing had happened. 

“I have no recollection of saying anything of that kind,” Mr. Bove told Senator Schiff. “I’ve certainly said things, encouraging litigators at the department to fight hard for valid positions that we have to take in defense of our clients.”

Ms. Collins, in a statement ahead of the cloture vote last week, said that Mr. Bove’s record at the justice department motivated her “no” vote. She said his actions, in her opinion, showed that he would be incapable of being an “impartial” judge. 

“We have to have judges who will adhere to the rule of law and the Constitution and do so regardless of what their personal views may be. Mr. Bove’s political profile and some of the actions he has taken in his leadership roles at the Department of Justice cause me to conclude he would not serve as an impartial jurist,” the Maine senator said. 

Mr. Bove became a more nationally known figure earlier this year shortly after taking over as acting deputy attorney general, when he was forced to appear before a New York federal judge in person to argue for the dismissal of charges levied against Mr. Adams. 

The justice department argued that Mr. Adams should not be put on trial because it was in the public’s interest that the mayor be focused on aiding the administration’s mass deportation operation. Mr. Bove sought to have the charges dismissed without prejudice, meaning they could be brought again, leading many Democrats to accuse the Trump administration of holding the possibility of prosecution over Mr. Adams’s head. 

Judge Dale Ho of the Southern District of New York would end up dismissing the charges with prejudice, saying that he did not have the power to force the justice department to continue a prosecution. Judge Ho did criticize the deal in his order, however. “Everything here smacks of a bargain: dismissal of the Indictment in exchange for immigration policy concessions,” Judge Ho wrote at the time.

_________

This article was updated to clarify the parliamentary meaning of cloture in the context of the Bove nomination.