Donald Trump’s criminal defense attorney Emily Bove, now a top official at the Department of Justice, reportedly pushed for an “aggressive” criminal investigation into Columbia University student activists that fueled a mass exodus of civil rights prosecutors.
Federal prosecutors — and a judge — fought against Bove’s pursuit of student activists’ Instagram accounts and search warrants as part of an allegedly aborted criminal inquiry into student demonstrations against Israel’s war in Gaza, according to a behind-the-scenes report from The New York Times.
Prosecutors in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division feared that the investigation was a pretext to facilitate Trump’s deportation campaign targeting dissent on campus, and ultimately refused to put together a list of activist group members Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, the newspaper reported. Following his election victory, Trump appointed Bove as associate deputy attorney general, serving under deputy attorney general Todd Blanche, another Trump criminal defense attorney.
The Independent has requested comment from the Justice Department.
Bove — who represented the president during his criminal hush money trial in Manhattan and in Trump’s federal cases involving classified documents and obstruction of the 2020 presidential election — then reportedly pushed for a search warrant for one campus activist group’s Instagram account based on a “threat.”
Prosecutors pushed back, arguing that a post from Columbia University Apartheid Divest did not rise to the definition of a threat, The Times reported.
The Independent has requested comment from the group.
When federal prosecutors involved in the investigation applied for a search warrant, a magistrate judge in New York rejected the request, finding that the government did not have sufficient probable cause, and amounted to potentially unconstitutional threats to the First Amendment, according to the newspaper.
Bove then insisted that prosecutors appeal to a federal judge, who then instructed a chief magistrate judge to reconsider the request, The Times reported.
Magistrate judge Sarah Netburn blocked the request a second time — but said that if prosecutors tried again, she would force them to file an unsealed transcript of their discussions, according to The Times.
At another point, Bove allegedly instructed FBI agents to wear raid jackets and stand in close formation on Columbia’s campus, prompting staff at the civil rights division to push back over fears of unlawful intimidation.
A series of high-profile arrests targeting international student activists and academics for their Palestinian activism followed a wave of campus demonstrations drawing attention to Israel’s devastation in Gaza.
After taking office, Trump signed an executive order that declares U.S. policy is to “ensure” noncitizens “do not … advocate for, aid, or support designated foreign terrorists and other threats to our national security.” Another executive order pledges “immediate action” to “investigate and punish anti-Jewish racism in leftist, anti-American colleges and universities” with a promise to “deport Hamas sympathizers and revoke student visas,” according to a fact sheet from the White House.
Activists and civil rights groups argue the administration is wrongly conflating activism and criticism of Israel with antisemitism to justify a mass purge of foreign students and punish activists for speech the government disagrees with.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has revoked hundreds of student visas, and civil rights legal advocacy groups are joining legal battles in deportation hearings across the country.
New of Bove’s alleged attempts to investigate Columbia students follows the release of Mohsen Mahdawi, who was arrested at his citizenship interview and hauled off in handcuffs earlier this month.
After a federal judge in Vermont ordered his immediate release from ICE custody, he walked out of a courthouse holding up two “peace” signs.
“To President Trump and his cabinet,” he told supporters. “I am not afraid of you.”
