Emil Bove takes leading role in implementing Trump takeover of DoJ

Hugo Lowell

Emil Bove, the acting deputy attorney general, moving with ruthless efficiency last week to dismiss the corruption case against the New York mayor, Eric Adams, appeared to reflect the new praxis at the justice department where Trump’s political agenda will guide prosecutorial decisions.

The department filed the motion to dismiss on Friday with the signatures of Bove and two trial attorneys – the public integrity section’s senior litigation counsel Edward Sullivan and the acting head of the criminal division Antoinette Bacon – that cemented the decision.

While the presiding US district judge Dale Ho has ordered an evidentiary hearing to examine the circumstances under which the charges were withdrawn, including the protest resignation of the acting US attorney in Manhattan, the case is widely seen as over in practical terms.

The move to force through the dismissal showed the new course that Bove is charting as the justice department’s number two official, implementing Donald Trump’s vision of the unitary executive theory, where the president directs the decisions of every agency.

In ordering the case be dropped, Bove wrote that “continuing these proceedings would interfere with the defendant’s ability to govern in New York City, which poses unacceptable threats to public safety, national security and related federal immigration initiatives and policies” to deport undocumented immigrants.

The memo made clear that aiding a mayor who wanted to help with the immigration crackdown, a national priority, outweighed continuing to bring bribery charges against a local mayor, and the justice department in future will balance policy priorities against the merits of a case.

And Bove’s effort to press forward with the dismissal also reflected his determination to bring the justice department to heel after weathering resignations in protest from seven prosecutors that appeared to verge on insubordination, according to people familiar with the situation.

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The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said Donald Trump is “living in a disinformation bubble” after the US president last night appeared to blame Ukraine for Russia’s illegal 2022 invasion.

Trump’s comments, made last night in Florida, were his first on Ukraine since the US held peace talks with Russia in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, earlier on Tuesday. He said he was “very disappointed” that Zelenskyy had complained about Ukraine not being invited to the talks, adding:

You’ve been there for three years … You should have never started it. You could have made a deal.

The comments parrot one of Vladimir Putin’s main talking points which is that Ukraine was somehow to blame for Russia’s invasion.

Trump also falsely suggested that Zelenskyy is unpopular at home with a 4% approval rating and is blocking elections in Ukraine. In fact Zelenskyy declared martial law after Russia invaded and the latest polls show 57% of Ukrainians trust his leadership.

Zelenskyy accused the US of bringing Russia out of diplomatic isolation by holding the bilateral talks in Riyadh, and warned of “a lot of disinformation coming out of Russia” as he called out Trump’s misleading statements.

Unfortunately, President Trump, with all due respect for him as the leader of a nation that we respect greatly … is living in this disinformation bubble.

Zelenskyy added that the focus is on what support Europe can provide to Ukraine if there is a reduction in US assistance. He also pointedly rejected the current US draft deal on minerals saying it was “not ready”, drafted under US law, and offering inadequate compensation.

I can’t sell it away, I can’t sell our state.

The Ukrainian president rejected any suggestion of making broad concessions to Russia, saying any such idea was widely rejected by Ukrainians, and challenged the US Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, visiting Kyiv today, to go and talk to ordinary Ukrainians about their reception of Trump’s comments.

Zelenskyy also opposed the use of the word “conflict” to describe Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, saying it is a deliberate attempt to soften the perception of the aggression.

For all the latest on Ukraine and Europe, head over to our Europe live blog:

by Léonie Chao-Fong and Carter Sherman

Donald Trump has signed an executive order to expand access to in vitro fertilization (IVF).

The order directs the domestic policy council to make recommendations to “aggressively” reduce the costs for accessing IVF, according to a White House fact sheet. Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said on X that the order was evidence of the president’s “promises kept” – even though the order does not directly change any policy and does not, on its own, fulfill Trump’s campaign pledge to make the government or insurance companies cover IVF.

“Americans need reliable access to IVF and more affordable treatment options, as the cost per cycle can range from $12,000 to $25,000,” the fact sheet reads.

“It is the policy of my administration to ensure reliable access to IVF treatment, including by easing unnecessary statutory or regulatory burdens to make IVF treatment drastically more affordable.”

During the 2024 presidential election, Trump recast his position on IVF as a strong supporter of the treatment, declaring himself the “father of IVF” while at the same time admitting he only recently discovered what the procedure involved.

Read the full report here: