A top Justice Department official nominated by President Trump to serve as a federal judge faced tough questions from Senate Democrats in a hearing today.

Emil Bovi, who worked previously as a criminal defense attorney for the president, has faced intense scrutiny for some of the DOJ's most aggressive actions in recent months,

including the firing of prosecutors and FBI agents who

investigated the president and the January 6th insurrection.

In his opening statement, Bovi defended himself against recent criticism.

There is a wildly inaccurate caricature of me in the mainstream media.

I am not anybody's henchman.

I'm not an enforcer.

I'm a lawyer from a small town who never expected to be in an arena like this.

Carrie Johnson covers the Justice Department for NPR and joins me now.

Carrie, great to see you.

Thanks, you too.

So before we get into some of the hearing details, tell us more about Mr. Bobey's qualifications

and why he's considered such a controversial pick for this role. Well, he has a long record working

in and around courtrooms. He started as a paralegal for the Justice Department back in the day.

He graduated from Georgetown University's

law school. He clerked for two different federal judges. And then he went on to serve as a federal

prosecutor in the Southern District of New York for many years, leading a unit that prosecuted

drug kingpins and accused terrorists before going on to become the defense lawyer for Donald Trump.

And since January, he's been basically running the Justice Department's operations day-to-day,

because the Justice Department has been engaged in a very aggressive campaign to both shrink itself

and reorient its priorities, he stood at the center of a lot of controversies

...