Washington DC - President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer Emil Bove came in for tough questioning from Democratic senators on Wednesday at a fiery hearing on his nomination to become a federal appeals court judge.

"Mr. Bove has led the effort to weaponize the Department of Justice against the president's enemies," said Senator Dick Durbin, ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

"Having earned his stripes as a loyalist to this president, he's been rewarded with this lifetime nomination" as a judge on the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Durbin said.

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Bove (44), a former federal prosecutor who is currently the third-ranking official in the Justice Department, rejected the characterization, saying he is "not anybody's henchman."

"I'm not an enforcer," he said.

Bove represented Trump in the New York case that ended in his conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up hush money payments to a porn star.

He also defended Trump in the two federal cases brought against the then-former president by Special Counsel Jack Smith.

Bove was grilled by Democrats about a whistleblower's claim that he had once told subordinates he would be willing to ignore court orders to enforce Trump's plans to deport undocumented migrants.

Bove denied the allegation.

"I have never advised a Department of Justice attorney to violate a court order," he told the committee.

Bove also denied that his decision to dismiss corruption charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams was in exchange for the Democratic mayor's support for Trump's immigration crackdown.

"The suggestion that there was some kind of quid pro quo is just plain false," he said.

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Bove's order to federal prosecutors in New York to drop the bribery and fraud charges against Adams triggered a wave of protest resignations in the Manhattan district attorney's office and at the Justice Department in Washington.

Trump was charged with conspiracy to defraud the US over his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

He was also charged with mishandling classified documents after leaving the White House.

The documents case was dismissed by a Trump-appointed judge while the election interference case was delayed by Trump's claims of presidential immunity and never came to trial.