Candidate To Become Federal Judge Refuses To Reject That Trump Should Serve A Third Term

A top Justice Department official and federal judge candidate has refused to deny the idea that President Donald Trump will attempt to serve a third Presidential term.

Principal associate deputy attorney general Emil Bove submitted a questionnaire to a Senate panel in order to be considered for lifetime appointment as a federal judge. In the questionnaire, he declined to deny the possibility of Trump serving a third term as President.

Many Democratic Senators asked Bove to state whether or not he believed the Constitution allowed President Trump to run for and serve a third Presidential term in the questionnaire.

"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 responded on multiple occasions.

"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," he further stated.

Bove, who previously served as Trump's own criminal defense attorney, also refused to denounce the January 6 attack at the Capitol in 2021 in the questionnaire.

A question in the form read "Do you denounce the January 6 insurrection?"

"The characterization of the events on January 6 is a matter of significant political debate," further adding that it would be "inappropriate to address this question" considering that trials regarding the pardons of Jan. 6 defendants are actively ongoing.

Bove added that he doesn't remember which cases relating to the Capitol riots he supervised while he served in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York.

Furthermore, Bove argued in the questionnaire that his role in the prosecution of New York City Mayor Eric Adams had been misrepresented. Bove was accused of supporting a quid pro quo agreement between the Justice Department and Adams in which Adams would be liberated of charges in exchange for supporting the Trump administration's immigration agenda.

Bove told the Senate panel that dropping the charges against Adams was "well within the scope of prosecutorial discretion" and that the material provided by Adams in court "refute false public allegations by third parties regarding some sort of improper quid pro quo."

"It was never my intention to coerce, pressure, or induce any DOJ attorney — through adverse employment actions, threats, rewards, or otherwise — to sign the motion to dismiss the charges against Mayor Adams," he wrote.