Longtime legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Shan Wu released a video overnight warning that President Donald Trump's lawyer should be worried about accusations that he lied to Congress.
Trump nominated top Justice Department official Emil Bove to a judicial post on the Third Circuit Court, and he appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday, where several Democrats confronted him with conflicting statements.
A whistleblower letter was sent to the committee ahead of the hearing, alleging that Bove instructed DOJ staff to disregard court orders and instructed the Department of Homeland Security to disregard a court's request for information.
While testifying, Bove was questioned extensively on the letter and other matters, specifically regarding conflicting statements.
"Forget about the fact that this is a high-ranking DOJ official taking these kinds of actions, talking that way about a court, put aside the fact that he's up to be confirmed to a federal court of appeals, maybe some day to the Supreme Court, and that's his attitude, to tell the courts to F-off and to mislead them," Wu said. "And even put aside what this shows about how questionably corrupt, how politically manipulated it is — the current DOJ administration. And lastly, put aside the fact — will Bove really get confirmed or not?"
Wu said he's worked to prepare people to testify before Congress for judge appointments. So, what he finds "amazing" is that Bove even considered testifying before the committee after these allegations.
He said that he would have told Bove not to testify, "because you may get caught — maybe a minor lie, maybe a huge lie. This is exposure nobody wants to be put through when someone directly says — he said something wrong. You’ve done something wrong and you have to deny Congress."
He compared it to what happened with Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and allegations of sexual assault. If the FBI had followed up on the allegations and conducted an investigation that proved them, he, too, could have been found to have lied under oath to Congress.
During the hearing, several Democratic Senators asked Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) to bring in the whistleblower to testify under oath, so the GOP could decide for themselves whether to approve Bove.
On social media, Wu added, "Trump’s DOJ and high ranking DOJ official Emil Bove should be scared of Bove’s confirmation hearing putting him in jeopardy of being accused of lying to Congress."
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