Emil Bove may not be a household name in the United States, but he was a familiar face for anyone who followed President Donald Trump's hush money trial in New York City last year.
Bove served as co-counsel on Trump's defense and was a regular fixture by the president's side during the trial. At the time, Bove was working as a partner at co-counsel Todd Blanche's law firm.
Bove is now one of the leaders in the Department of Justice, having left private practice. He is currently serving as acting deputy attorney general, Attorney General Pam Bondi's number two, while Blanche awaits confirmation for the deputy attorney general post. Trump nominated Bove for the role of principal associate deputy attorney general, but the president selected him for the acting DAG position until Blanche is confirmed.
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WATCH HEREIn his role, Bove is front and center in the Eric Adams bribery and corruption case, which he ordered the Southern District of New York to dismiss "without prejudice," meaning the charges could be refiled at a later date.
Bove's order sent off a chain of events, including the resignation of a number of federal prosecutors.
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SIGN UP Early last week, Bove told prosecutors in New York in a memo to drop the charges because the prosecution “has unduly restricted Mayor Adams’ ability to devote full attention and resources to the illegal immigration and violent crime.” He said charges could be reinstated after November's mayoral election.
Two days later, then-interim U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon wrote to Attorney General Pam Bondi, saying Bove's request to drop charges in return for assistance in enforcing federal immigration laws would betray Bondi's own words that she "will not tolerate abuses of the criminal justice process, coercive behavior, or other forms of misconduct.”
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“Dismissal of the indictment for no other reason than to influence Adams’s mayoral decision-making would be all three,” Sassoon, a Republican, said of what she called a “quid pro quo” deal as she offered to resign. She also said prosecutors were about to bring additional obstruction of justice charges against Adams.
Bove responded to Sassoon with apparent anger, accepting her resignation and accusing her of “pursuing a politically motivated prosecution despite an express instruction to dismiss the case.” He then informed her that two prosecutors assigned to the case were suspended with pay and that an investigation would determine if they keep their jobs.
If either of those prosecutors wished to comply with his directive to dismiss charges, he welcomed them to do so, but Hagan Scotten quit the following day, writing in a resignation letter that he supported Sassoon's actions.
Scotten wrote to Bove that it would take a “fool” or a “coward” to meet his demand to drop the charges, “but it was never going to be me.”
In all, seven prosecutors, including five high-ranking prosecutors at the Justice Department in Washington, had resigned by Friday.
Adams and attorneys representing the Department of Justice will be in court Wednesday for a hearing before Judge Dale Ho. Bove is expected to attend the hearing and could speak on behalf of the DOJ, according to reporting from News 4 and NBC News.
What did Emil Bove do before becoming a leader at the DOJ in Washington?
Bove's biography on Blanche's law firm website now comes up as unavailable, as does the firm's website.
Before working on the president's legal defense team, Bove was a partner at Chiesa Shahinian & Giantomasi in their white collar and investigations group, the firm said in a statement on its website congratulating Bove on his selection for the DOJ. CSG is based in New York and New Jersey.
Bove also has past experience in at U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York as an assistant U.S. attorney.
According to a LinkedIn profile appearing to belong to Bove, he also worked as an associate at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP. President Trump selected Sullivan & Cromwell to represent him moving forward on his appeal of his hush money conviction now that Bove and Blanche will be serving in the Department of Justice, according the ABA Journal.
He graduated in 2003 from the University of Albany, with a double major in public policy and economics, according to the school. He received his law degree from Georgetown University in 2008.
