President Donald Trump’s pick to serve as an appellate court judge faced pointed questions from a Democrat over the freezing of federal climate grant funding during his confirmation hearing Wednesday.
Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, Trump’s former personal defense attorney, defended his record at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday to serve on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) pressed Bove to explain efforts by top Justice Department officials to open a criminal investigation into the Biden administration’s decision to issue $20 billion climate grants as part of EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has maintained that the “entire scheme” was “criminal,” though no such evidence has emerged.
Denise Cheung, a former senior prosecutor in the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, had said in her resignation letter that she had been pressured to issue an order requiring Citibank to freeze the climate funds. Cheung said she was asked to resign by interim U.S. Attorney Ed Martin, after she found that there was not sufficient evidence to pursue a criminal case.
