NEW YORK - For two weeks President Donald Trump's new administration has been racing to remake the Justice Department tasked with U.S. law enforcement. Leading the overhaul is Emil Bove, a lawyer who defended Trump in a criminal case stemming from hush money paid to a porn star.
Bove, 43, stayed largely in the background during last year's criminal trial, letting his co-counsel address the jury while their client, then a candidate for the White House, spoke to news cameras in the courtroom hallway.
Now as acting deputy attorney general, Bove has been front and center, signing his name to bold policy changes meant to remove what Trump calls political bias but which critics say threaten DOJ's traditional independence from the White House.
"If you want somebody who's going to hit the ground running, he's the guy," said Brendan Quigley, who in 2016 alongside Bove secured the trial conviction of two nephews of Venezuela's first lady on drug trafficking charges at the U.S. Attorney's office for the Southern District of New York, which includes Manhattan.
"He's not one to shy away from a fight," said Quigley, now a partner at law firm Baker Botts.
Bove is responsible for day-to-day operations of DOJ's more than 110,000 employees until Trump's permanent choice, Todd Blanche, is confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Once Blanche, who also defended Trump in the hush money case, is confirmed, Bove is expected to work as his top deputy.
Before serving as a Trump defense lawyer, Bove had vast experience as a criminal prosecutor. He secured high-profile terrorism and drug trafficking convictions, and once supervised a case where an evidence misstep drew a judge's rebuke.
The temporary nature of Bove's appointment has not deterred him from implementing contentious changes to policies on two fronts: the probe of Trump supporters' Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and immigration enforcement.
Hours after entering the White House, Trump pardoned nearly all 1,590 people charged with rioting at the Capitol in a failed attempt to keep Congress from certifying former Democratic President Joe Biden's defeat of Trump, a Republican, in the 2020 election. Trump has vowed to seek retribution against perceived enemies.
In a Friday memo seen by Reuters, Bove ordered the firing of all prosecutors who had been hired on a probationary basis to work on Jan. 6-related cases. Last Thursday, he told the top federal prosecutors in each state to compile a list of all prosecutor...