A top Justice Department official is refusing to say whether President Donald Trump can run for a third term — even though the U.S. Constitution clearly says he can’t.
Emil Bove, who represented Trump at his recent criminal trial and now works as an associate deputy attorney general, dodged repeated questions about whether a third Trump term would be legal. He’s currently up for a lifetime seat on the federal appeals court and submitted written answers to the Senate Judiciary Committee as part of his nomination process.
When asked directly about the 22nd Amendment — which plainly states, “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice” — Bove would not commit.
“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,” he wrote.
He gave the same non-answer multiple times. Bove added that offering a real opinion would be “improper” and that he didn’t want to comment on what he called a “political or policy debate regarding term limits.”
This comes at a time when Bove is under intense scrutiny. A whistleblower — former DOJ attorney Erez Reuveni — accused him of leading a push to defy court rulings and lie to federal judges. According to Reuveni, Bove told lawyers to say “fuck you” to judges who ruled against Trump-era policies. Reuveni was later fired after admitting in court that the government illegally deported an immigrant from Maryland.
Bove also refused to answer questions about the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. When asked if he wanted to denounce the violence, he declined, writing that it was “a matter of significant political debate.”
He couldn’t even recall what, if any, cases tied to Jan. 6 he worked on while at the Southern District of New York — where he served until 2021.
Last year, Bove joined Trump’s legal team as the former president was tried and convicted on 34 felony counts in New York state court. Now, he’s up for a permanent seat on the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is set to vote Thursday on whether to advance his nomination. CBS News first reported on the questionnaire Friday.
