{"id":155999,"date":"2026-07-08T15:32:47","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T23:32:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/07\/08\/judge-emil-bove-set-trump-assassination-photo-as-his-phones-lock-screen-like-a-proper-henchman\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T15:32:47","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T23:32:47","slug":"judge-emil-bove-set-trump-assassination-photo-as-his-phones-lock-screen-like-a-proper-henchman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/07\/08\/judge-emil-bove-set-trump-assassination-photo-as-his-phones-lock-screen-like-a-proper-henchman\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge Emil Bove Set Trump Assassination Photo As His Phone\u2019s Lock Screen, Like A Proper Henchman"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Your background photo selection is more of a window into your inner life than anything else. It\u2019s the image greeting you eighty times a day when you check the time, answer emails, or check how many concessions the US gave to Iran while you were away. Which is why most people fill that screen with a wedding portrait, or dance recital, or just a sweeping vista reminding that nature exists until it can be plundered for fossil fuels.<\/p>\n

Emil Bove put a bloodied portrait of his former client.<\/p>\n

According to the New York Times<\/a>, Third Circuit Judge Emil Bove set his iPhone background to a photo of Donald Trump raising his fist after the July 2024 assassination attempt that supposedly took off the top of his ear. Then that ear healed with the speed of a starfish regrowing a limb, in defiance of the ordinary laws of human biology. Imagine a life so fucking empty that the image you commune with daily is not the people who love you or a favored masterpiece, but a client going full Mussolini.[1]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

The Times got the detail from three people with direct knowledge, and reports that it caused \u201cvisible discomfort<\/a>\u201d among Bove\u2019s colleagues \u2014 13 of them, on a 14-seat court serving Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. To be clear, the Third Circuit was uncomfortable with a colleague showing such fawning affection for Trump and Donald Trump\u2019s sister was on the Third Circuit<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The Times piece asks whether Bove\u2019s loyalty to Trump might override his commitment to the rule of law. The phone seems to have answered that one.<\/p>\n

All the ethics aside, \u201cthink about people in your life who might be inclined to use a photo of Donald Trump in this manner,\u201d Jay Willis writes over at Balls and Strikes<\/a>. \u201cAre they normal, reasonable people whom you would describe as functioning adults with a firm grip on reality?\u201d <\/p>\n

In front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Bove complained about a \u201cwildly inaccurate caricature\u201d of himself in the press. \u201cI am not anybody\u2019s henchman<\/a>,\u201d he said with a straight face. Then he took his rubberstamped lifetime judicial appointment and turned up at a MAGA rally in Pennsylvania<\/a>, to see-and-be-seen with the red-hat faithful while Trump called immigrants garbage from \u201cshithole countries\u201d and mused about a third term. Bove explained himself as \u201cjust here as a citizen coming to watch the president speak.\u201d That earned him an ethics complaint now parked with the Third Circuit\u2019s chief judge, which is where ethics complaints against judges tend to die. He has so far recused himself only from cases directly tied to his prior work for Trump, leaving open the much more consequential body of cases where he can do his henchmanly duties.<\/p>\n

There are sanctuary cities challenges that could implicate Philadelphia, ICE\u2019s ongoing deportation efforts are on a collision course for the courts, and Emil Bove \u2014 who, as a DOJ official, reportedly ordered his lawyers to tell the courts \u201cfuck you\u201d \u2014 now stands ready to act in any and all of these matters.<\/p>\n

Two months ago, the Justice Department moved to force Judge Eleanor Ross<\/a> off a Georgia election case claiming \u2014 stop me if this sounds familiar \u2014 that she lacked impartiality because she attended a 2024 primary victory party for Fulton County DA Fani Willis \u2014 a former colleague and friend since 1999 \u2014 who once prosecuted Trump. The standard that the DOJ committed to paper, over Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon\u2019s signature:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cA judge who attended a party celebrating the election of a Democrat best known for prosecuting a Republican President for alleged election interference cannot then preside over a case concerning that President\u2019s efforts to ensure election integrity.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Is it too much to ask that we hold Ross and Bove to the same standard? Yes, apparently it is. Section 455 \u2014 that a judge should recuse where \u201cimpartiality might reasonably be questioned\u201d \u2014 would, if applied honestly, disqualify Bove from an enormous class of cases. Everyone at Main Justice knows this, and so they look the other way where it would apply to him. But they deploy it at Ross because removing a judge who might rule against them is a rational return on a cheap motion.<\/p>\n

And beyond the specific case of the DOJ seeking to meddle with Georgia\u2019s voter rolls, Judge Ross faces impeachment calls. Meanwhile, Bove continues bringing his Temu Roy Cohn self to the courthouse every day to do what he can to assist the boss. Ross\u2019s party with a former coworker is called a grave ethical lapse, and Bove\u2019s party and the fact that he carries a shrine to the president in his pocket recede into footnotes.[2]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Maybe Judge Ross should have explained that she was \u201cjust here as a citizen coming to watch the DA speak.\u201d And, you know, not had sex in her chambers<\/a>. At least Bove doesn\u2019t have that problem. <\/p>\n

Unless someone catches him staring at his lock screen for too long.<\/p>\n

Emil Bove Defended Trump in Court. Then Trump Made Him a Judge<\/a>. [NY Times]
Trump judge unsettles colleagues with provocative phone background photo<\/a> [Raw Story]
Emil Bove\u2019s Trump iPhone Wallpaper Might Be the Most Deranged Thing About Him<\/a> [Balls and Strikes]<\/p>\n

Earlier<\/strong>: Judge Emil Bove\u2019s MAGA Rally Field Trip Sparks Judicial Misconduct Complaint<\/a>
Emil Bove\u2019s \u2018I\u2019m Not A Henchman\u2019 T-Shirt Has People Asking Questions At Judicial Confirmation Hearing<\/a>
Over 90 Former DOJ Lawyers Sign Letter Opposing Emil Bove Nomination\u2026 Oh, Wait, Sorry That\u2019s 900<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Note: The Trump photo in the meme is by Jabin Botsford\/The Washington Post via Getty Images<\/em>.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Mussolini also famously avoided a 1926 assassination attempt by turning his head at an opportune moment. He then made a show of wearing a bandage on his nose.
[2]<\/a> See?<\/p>\n

\n

\"Headshot\"Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Judge Emil Bove Set Trump Assassination Photo As His Phone\u2019s Lock Screen, Like A Proper Henchman<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Your background photo selection is more of a window into your inner life than anything else. It\u2019s the image greeting you eighty times a day when you check the time, answer emails, or check how many concessions the US gave to Iran while you were away. Which is why most people fill that screen with a wedding portrait, or dance recital, or just a sweeping vista reminding that nature exists until it can be plundered for fossil fuels.<\/p>\n

Emil Bove put a bloodied portrait of his former client.<\/p>\n

According to the New York Times<\/a>, Third Circuit Judge Emil Bove set his iPhone background to a photo of Donald Trump raising his fist after the July 2024 assassination attempt that supposedly took off the top of his ear. Then that ear healed with the speed of a starfish regrowing a limb, in defiance of the ordinary laws of human biology. Imagine a life so fucking empty that the image you commune with daily is not the people who love you or a favored masterpiece, but a client going full Mussolini.[1]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

The Times got the detail from three people with direct knowledge, and reports that it caused \u201cvisible discomfort<\/a>\u201d among Bove\u2019s colleagues \u2014 13 of them, on a 14-seat court serving Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. To be clear, the Third Circuit was uncomfortable with a colleague showing such fawning affection for Trump and Donald Trump\u2019s sister was on the Third Circuit<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The Times piece asks whether Bove\u2019s loyalty to Trump might override his commitment to the rule of law. The phone seems to have answered that one.<\/p>\n

All the ethics aside, \u201cthink about people in your life who might be inclined to use a photo of Donald Trump in this manner,\u201d Jay Willis writes over at Balls and Strikes<\/a>. \u201cAre they normal, reasonable people whom you would describe as functioning adults with a firm grip on reality?\u201d <\/p>\n

In front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Bove complained about a \u201cwildly inaccurate caricature\u201d of himself in the press. \u201cI am not anybody\u2019s henchman<\/a>,\u201d he said with a straight face. Then he took his rubberstamped lifetime judicial appointment and turned up at a MAGA rally in Pennsylvania<\/a>, to see-and-be-seen with the red-hat faithful while Trump called immigrants garbage from \u201cshithole countries\u201d and mused about a third term. Bove explained himself as \u201cjust here as a citizen coming to watch the president speak.\u201d That earned him an ethics complaint now parked with the Third Circuit\u2019s chief judge, which is where ethics complaints against judges tend to die. He has so far recused himself only from cases directly tied to his prior work for Trump, leaving open the much more consequential body of cases where he can do his henchmanly duties.<\/p>\n

There are sanctuary cities challenges that could implicate Philadelphia, ICE\u2019s ongoing deportation efforts are on a collision course for the courts, and Emil Bove \u2014 who, as a DOJ official, reportedly ordered his lawyers to tell the courts \u201cfuck you\u201d \u2014 now stands ready to act in any and all of these matters.<\/p>\n

Two months ago, the Justice Department moved to force Judge Eleanor Ross<\/a> off a Georgia election case claiming \u2014 stop me if this sounds familiar \u2014 that she lacked impartiality because she attended a 2024 primary victory party for Fulton County DA Fani Willis \u2014 a former colleague and friend since 1999 \u2014 who once prosecuted Trump. The standard that the DOJ committed to paper, over Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon\u2019s signature:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cA judge who attended a party celebrating the election of a Democrat best known for prosecuting a Republican President for alleged election interference cannot then preside over a case concerning that President\u2019s efforts to ensure election integrity.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Is it too much to ask that we hold Ross and Bove to the same standard? Yes, apparently it is. Section 455 \u2014 that a judge should recuse where \u201cimpartiality might reasonably be questioned\u201d \u2014 would, if applied honestly, disqualify Bove from an enormous class of cases. Everyone at Main Justice knows this, and so they look the other way where it would apply to him. But they deploy it at Ross because removing a judge who might rule against them is a rational return on a cheap motion.<\/p>\n

And beyond the specific case of the DOJ seeking to meddle with Georgia\u2019s voter rolls, Judge Ross faces impeachment calls. Meanwhile, Bove continues bringing his Temu Roy Cohn self to the courthouse every day to do what he can to assist the boss. Ross\u2019s party with a former coworker is called a grave ethical lapse, and Bove\u2019s party and the fact that he carries a shrine to the president in his pocket recede into footnotes.[2]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Maybe Judge Ross should have explained that she was \u201cjust here as a citizen coming to watch the DA speak.\u201d And, you know, not had sex in her chambers<\/a>. At least Bove doesn\u2019t have that problem. <\/p>\n

Unless someone catches him staring at his lock screen for too long.<\/p>\n

Emil Bove Defended Trump in Court. Then Trump Made Him a Judge<\/a>. [NY Times]
Trump judge unsettles colleagues with provocative phone background photo<\/a> [Raw Story]
Emil Bove\u2019s Trump iPhone Wallpaper Might Be the Most Deranged Thing About Him<\/a> [Balls and Strikes]<\/p>\n

Earlier<\/strong>: Judge Emil Bove\u2019s MAGA Rally Field Trip Sparks Judicial Misconduct Complaint<\/a>
Emil Bove\u2019s \u2018I\u2019m Not A Henchman\u2019 T-Shirt Has People Asking Questions At Judicial Confirmation Hearing<\/a>
Over 90 Former DOJ Lawyers Sign Letter Opposing Emil Bove Nomination\u2026 Oh, Wait, Sorry That\u2019s 900<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Note: The Trump photo in the meme is by Jabin Botsford\/The Washington Post via Getty Images<\/em>.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Mussolini also famously avoided a 1926 assassination attempt by turning his head at an opportune moment. He then made a show of wearing a bandage on his nose.
[2]<\/a> See?<\/p>\n

\n

\"Headshot\"Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Your background photo selection is more of a window into your inner life than anything else. It\u2019s the image greeting you eighty times a day when you check the time, answer emails, or check how many concessions the US gave to Iran while you were away. Which is why most people fill that screen with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":156000,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-155999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Headshot-300x200-tiiWqW.jpg?fit=300%2C200&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}