Emil Bove, a top Justice Department official and former personal attorney for President Donald Trump, was approved along party lines Tuesday night for a lifetime seat as a federal appeals judge in Philadelphia, capping a remarkably contentious process that will secure a prominent place in the judiciary for one Trump’s fiercest defenders.

The U.S. Senate confirmed Bove by a vote of 50-49. All Democrats opposed Bove’s candidacy, as did two Republican senators. But the GOP holds enough of a majority in the chamber that it was able to ensure that Bove’s spot on the federal bench was secured.

Bove, 44, has been a controversial figure during Trump’s second term as he’s spearheaded attempts to bring the Justice Department in line with the president’s image — one that uses aggressive enforcement initiatives to fulfill a mass deportation agenda and eschews a sense of prosecutorial independence, deferring instead to the White House when setting its priorities.

Bove’s judicial candidacy — announced by Trump in May — has drawn unusually pointed and public opposition from Democratic lawmakers as well as judges, former prosecutors, and, in recent weeks, three self-described whistleblowers, each of whom alleged that Bove had either expressed willingness to flout the law to serve Trump, or misled lawmakers seeking to vet his candidacy.

But none of that derailed Bove’s ability to ascend to a prestigious perch in the country’s halls of justice. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit handles cases involving Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and the Virgin Islands, and some observers believe Trump could eventually nominate Bove to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Other officials in Trump’s Justice Department defended Bove as controversies continued to surround his judicial candidacy. And Sen. Chuck Grassley, the Iowa Republican who chairs the Judiciary Committee, said Tuesday on the Senate floor that he believed the allegations against Bove were part of a Democratic smear campaign to undermine Trump nominees, saying Bove had been subjected to “vicious rhetoric, unfair accusations, and abuse.”

“I believe he will be diligent, capable, and a fair jurist,” Grassley said of Bove.

Since January, Bove has served as the principal associate deputy attorney general, and his unyielding push to remake the Justice Department has led to waves of conflict. He was involved in firing prosecutors who secured convictions connected to the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and moved to dismiss a corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams — a decision that led several prosecutors in New York and Washington to resign in protest.

Then, in June, a former Justice Department lawyer, Erez Reuveni, filed a whistleblower complaint again Bove, saying Bove had expressed a willingness to ignore court orders in order to fulfill Trump’s deportation agenda. Bove denied those allegations during a confirmation hearing before the Judiciary Committee.

Democrats on the committee sought to derail Bove’s nomination at times, asking that Reuveni be called to testify and questioning whether Bove had lied before the committee while seeking to deny Reuveni’s allegations.

They also accused Bove of being primarily concerned with being loyal to Trump. Before joining the Justice Department, Bove worked as a criminal defense attorney for Trump, including when Trump was convicted of concealing hush-money payments to a porn star to avoid damaging his 2016 presidential campaign.

Republicans who control the Judiciary Committee, however, generally dismissed those complaints as lacking substance and made in bad faith. And nearly all continued to support him as the controversies continued to mount, with the exception of two GOP senators: Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. Both voted against Bove’s nomination Tuesday night.

This week, two new whistleblower accounts emerged and raised questions about Bove’s tenure in Washington — one centered on his handling of an immigration case, the other reportedly over his testimony before Congress on the dismissal of the Adams prosecution.

By the time the allegations emerged, however, Bove’s nomination was already on track to be put to a floor vote.

Grassley, the GOP chair of the judiciary committee, said Tuesday that he viewed aspects of those new accounts as not credible, and added that his staff had been “stonewalled” while seeking more information from both whistleblowers in recent days.

“This 11th-hour media smear by my colleagues, based on information that was hidden from the committee, these are all unacceptable,” Grassley said.

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