Corruption a Hallmark of Trump’s Second Judicial Slate

WASHINGTON, D.C., May 29, 2025 – President Trump took to Truth Social this week to announce his second slate of judicial nominees. Even at first glance, this slate is rife with corruption, speaking to the depths of Trump’s effort to stack the courts with extremists loyal only to his agenda.

Emil Bove, nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, is perhaps as depraved a nominee as Trump could select. One of Trump’s personal attorneys, he helped defend Trump in several of the criminal cases against him. At the Justice Department, he was responsible for the corrupt order to dismiss the case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, he fired prosecutors involved in the January 6 cases, and he has championed Trump’s brutal and unconstitutional immigration enforcement.

Among the Florida district court nominees is Edward Artau, a judge on Florida’s Fourth District Court of Appeal, who in 1995 had to be investigated for his own corruption of a judicial selection panel. He inappropriately recommended Maria Sachs to the Florida circuit court after her husband arranged for him to be appointed to the nominating commission.

Jordan Pratt, currently a judge on Florida’s Fifth District Court of Appeal, is a veteran of the arch-conservative First Liberty Institute (just like infamous Trump appointee Matthew Kacsmaryk) and recently struck down a law that allowed minors to obtain abortions without parental consent.

John Guard, Florida’s chief deputy attorney general, signed a letter earlier this year calling for investigations into Dr. Anthony Fauci’s supposed mismanagement of the COVID-19 response, including “suppression” of concerns about the supposed risks of vaccines.

Alliance for Justice will provide more detailed research on these extremist nominees’ records in advance of their Senate hearings.

Alliance for Justice President Rachel Rossi issued the following statement:

“When examining Trump’s judicial nominees, we cannot separate his choices from the rampant attacks he and his administration have launched on our nation’s courts as they have dared to check his flagrant disregard for the most basic tenets of our Constitution. He doesn’t want judges who serve the rule of law; he wants judges who serve him and who will enable his wantonly illegal and corrupt personal and political agenda. Among these nominees are attorneys who have already used their power to inject corruption into the rule of law. Emil Bove’s loyalty to Trump and willingness to weaponize the Justice Department in alignment with Trump’s agenda is not only disqualifying, but it also signals a chilling new level of disregard for the rule of law by a judicial nominee. These nominees have no business being anywhere near the federal bench, and no senator who even gives them the slightest consideration can claim to be upholding their constitutional responsibility to provide advice and consent. To think we could have had a stellar jurist like Adeel Mangi on the Third Circuit and instead we must confront these unfit ideologues.”