Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats walked out before Republicans voted on Thursday to advance President Donald Trump’s nomination of Emil Bove — the controversial top Justice Department official who formerly served as Trump’s defense attorney — to a seat on the powerful Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

The Democrats left before Republicans forced the vote for Bove’s lifetime appointment on the appeals court that oversees districts in Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Bove has repeatedly drawn criticism from Democrats in the opening six months of Trump’s presidency for cultivating a reputation as one of President Trump’s chief enforcers at DOJ.

The Republican-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee’s vote to advance Bove means he will next face a vote in the full Senate.

Democratic Sen. Cory Booker spoke furiously from the dais, pleading with Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley to allow further debate on Bove’s nomination, but Grassley declined.

“What are you afraid of about even debating this?” Booker asked Grassley.

“Sir, with all appeals to your decency, with all appeals to your integrity, with all appeals to past jurisdictions and past precedent, why are you doing this?” Booker asked.

More than 900 former Justice Department employees sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday urging lawmakers to vote down Bove’s nomination.

He has fired scores of one-time career officials at Main Justice and the FBI, including prosecutors who worked on former special counsel Jack Smith’s investigations of Trump as well as the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob.

Bove also was at the center of the department’s controversial decision to drop the federal corruption case against New York Democratic Mayor Eric Adams, which led to the resignations of multiple prosecutors who argued the effort appeared to be a ‘quid pro quo’ to secure Adams’ cooperation with the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement actions.

Adams and Bove have both denied any such “quid pro quo” arrangement, but in agreeing to drop the charges the federal judge overseeing Adams’ case dinged the Justice Department writing, “Everything here smacks of a bargain.”

“Mr. Bove’s trampling over institutional norms in this case, and in others, sent shockwaves through the ranks — cratering morale, triggering mass departures, and eroding the effectiveness of DOJ’s vital work,” the prosecutors wrote of Bove’s actions. “Prosecutorial authority carries profound consequences on individuals’ lives and the integrity of our public institutions; wielding it without impartiality is a flagrant abuse of that power.”

More recently, however, Bove’s actions have come under scrutiny as the subject of a whistleblower complaint by fired DOJ attorney Erez Reuveni, who has accused Bove and other top DOJ officials of repeatedly discussing how they could potentially disobey court orders that seek to restrict the Trump administration’s immigration actions.

Reuveni’s complaint alleged that in one meeting Bove suggested saying “f— you” to courts who may try to block deportations under the Alien Enemies Act.

During his confirmation hearing, Bove disputed much of Reuveni’s complaint — though he only said he could “not recall” using such an expletive to describe their response to a court order.

“Each one of the undersigned would testify, under oath, that we have never — and would never — tell a Justice Department attorney to consider defying a court order,” the letter said. “Moreover, the Justice Department’s later defiance of judicial mandates in the cases where Mr. Bove previewed doing so further suggests that disregarding court orders was Mr. Bove’s intent all along.”

Republicans on the committee rushed to Bove’s defense in the wake of the whistleblower complaint, and accused Reuveni of partnering with Democrats in seeking to tank Bove’s nomination by filing it with the committee just 24 hours before he was set to appear publicly before them.

Responding to the former DOJ officials’ letter Wednesday, department official Brian Nieves attacked Justice Connection as a “political hit squad masquerading as a support network” and said “they certainly don’t speak for DOJ.”

“They speak for a bitter faction angry they no longer call the shots,” said Nieves, a deputy chief of staff to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. “Their attacks on Emil Bove are dishonest, coordinated, and disgraceful.”