The Washington Post is out with a new hit piece against Trump judicial nominee Emil Bove — and it’s as dumb and vapid as you would expect.
Authored by Perry Stein and Theodoric Meyer, the Monday afternoon hatchet job attempts to gin up controversy around Bove’s nomination to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals. The Trump Justice Department official is expected to be confirmed to the judgeship by the Senate sometime this week.
In their article, the so-called “journalists” wrote about claims from an anonymous whistleblower who allegedly “presented documentation that contradicts claims Bove made before the Senate Judiciary Committee about a Justice Department prosecution.” These records, according to Senate staffers who spoke with the authors, were reportedly first shared with Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and have since been reviewed by Senate Democrats.
A “summary” of the allegations has also been reportedly reviewed by the staff of Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. However, a spokeswoman for the Iowa Republican told the Post, as described by outlet, that the senator’s team “was not allowed to review the underlying evidence,” and that “Booker also never approached Grassley directly about the whistleblower’s evidence.”
According to the outlet, “The whistleblower’s attorneys said that they had offered to allow Grassley to review the full evidence — though not his staffers alone.”
“These eleventh-hour allegations, which were shared in advance with Democrats and the media but not with the Chairman or his staff, reek of a bad faith attempt to sink a nominee who’s already received committee approval,” Grassley spokeswoman Clare Slattery told the Post.
What this “evidence” says and what DOJ case they’re purportedly related to isn’t clear. Nowhere throughout their entire anti-Bove hit piece do Stein and Meyer offer any details about the matter or explain how exactly Bove “misled” the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The authors seemingly attempted to justify the lack of specifics by writing, “The Washington Post reviewed the evidence and agreed to withhold details to protect the identity of the whistleblower, whose lawyers spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the whistleblower’s fear of retribution.”
So, to recap, The Washington Post obtained records they frame as incredibly damning to Bove’s confirmation prospects but refuse to provide details about any of it. And the authors’ message to readers is effectively, “Trust us, it’s bad!”
If it wasn’t already obvious, the main goal of this pathetic excuse for “journalism” isn’t meant to inform the public about Bove or what kind of judge he’ll be. It’s a regurgitation of the same old Democrat-media playbook, in which anonymous sources are used to assassinate the character of any Republican nominee they view as a threat to their worldview.
Thus far, most Senate Republicans haven’t allowed baseless smears from another hostile whistleblower to hurt their support for Bove’s confirmation. And they shouldn’t allow this one to, either.
Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood