On July 29, 2025, Nebraska Senator Pete Ricketts voted to confirm Emil Bove to a lifetime seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit; the vote was 50 to 49, so Bove would not have been confirmed without him. As the acting No. 2 official at the Justice Department, Bove had ordered the firings of the Jan. 6 prosecutors days after President Trump granted clemency to more than 1,500 people charged in the attack on the Capitol. On August 8, 2026, Ricketts voted to confirm Todd Blanche as attorney general, again by 50 to 49, and he voted to confirm Pam Bondi and Kash Patel, whose Justice Department and FBI prosecuted the President's critics in cases that mostly failed.
In June 2026 Ricketts voted against six attempts to limit the Justice Department's $1.776 billion "Anti-Weaponization Fund," including a motion whose instructions named the fund, which failed 49 to 50 so his vote decided it, and amendments to bar payments to individuals convicted of assaulting law enforcement officers on January 6, 2021 and to compensate law enforcement officers who defended the United States Capitol. Pardoned rioters sought payouts from the fund before it was dropped. Nebraska is among the states that handed the Justice Department its complete voter list.
Pete Ricketts's Votes on the Justice Department and the January 6 Fund
- Ricketts Cast a Deciding Vote to Give Emil Bove a Lifetime Judgeship in July 2025. On July 29, 2025, Pete Ricketts voted to confirm Emil Bove to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit; he was confirmed 50 to 49, so a no vote from Ricketts would have defeated the nomination. Before the vote, it was public that Bove, as acting deputy attorney general, had ordered the firing of a group of prosecutors involved in those Jan. 6 criminal cases and demanded the names of FBI agents who worked them (AP). A fired Justice Department lawyer, Erez Reuveni, said Bove had raised telling the courts to disregard orders on deportation flights; Bove denies it.
- Ricketts Cast a Deciding Vote to Confirm Todd Blanche as Attorney General in August 2026. On August 8, 2026, Ricketts voted to confirm Todd Blanche as attorney general; the vote was 50 to 49, so the nomination would have failed without him. Ricketts had also voted to confirm Blanche as deputy attorney general in March 2025. Asked in April 2026 about President Trump having publicly implored her to indict several of his political enemies, referring to Bondi, Blanche said Americans should be "happy" the President is involved. Under Blanche the department obtained a second indictment of James Comey, over a photo the former FBI director posted online, a case that is pending, and on October 22, 2026 it sued the Alaska Division of Elections, asking a federal court to block the division from certifying the result of the state's U.S. Senate election in Alaska if Democrat Mary Peltola wins; that case is pending.
- Ricketts Voted to Confirm Pam Bondi, Whose Justice Department Prosecuted Trump's Critics. On February 4, 2025, Ricketts voted to confirm Pam Bondi as attorney general. Under Bondi the department indicted James Comey and Letitia James in the fall of 2025, and a judge dismissed both cases because the prosecutor had been unlawfully appointed, and two grand juries then declined to re-indict James. Protect Democracy, which tracks these cases, found that "Most of those cases have failed". In January 2026 FBI agents were authorized to seize all physical ballots from the 2020 election in Fulton County, Georgia.
- Ricketts Voted to Confirm Kash Patel, Whose FBI Fired Agents Who Investigated Trump. On February 20, 2025, Ricketts voted to confirm Kash Patel as FBI director; he was confirmed 51 to 49 Patel's FBI fires special agents who worked on Jack Smith's probe into the President, and in October 2026 nine fired FBI employees filed a federal lawsuit Thursday against FBI Director Kash Patel and Attorney General Todd Blanche.
- Ricketts Voted to Confirm Jeanine Pirro, Whose Office Tried to Indict Members of Congress. On August 2, 2025, Ricketts voted to confirm Jeanine Pirro as U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., and she was confirmed 50 to 45. Her office investigated Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin and five other Democratic lawmakers over a video telling service members they may refuse illegal orders, and a grand jury on Tuesday declined to indict Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin on February 10, 2026.
- Ricketts Voted Against Requiring a Governor's Consent Before Troops Deploy in a State in October 2025. On October 9, 2025, Ricketts voted against an amendment to the defense bill to clarify certain limitations on full-time National Guard duty performed in a State, which would have required the governor's consent, and against an amendment to limit the provision of support by the Armed Forces to civilian law enforcement activities. Both failed. Two months later the Supreme Court refused, for now, to let the president send Guard troops into Illinois over the governor's objection, and troops have patrolled Washington, D.C. since August 2025 at a peak of about 5,000.
- Ricketts Cast a Deciding Vote Against a Motion to Bar Taxpayer Money for the Anti-Weaponization Fund in June 2026. On June 4, 2026, Ricketts voted no on Senator Chuck Schumer's motion to send the reconciliation bill, S. 2, back to the Judiciary Committee with instructions to safeguard the Justice Department from political influence, which the Congressional Record prints as possibly including a ban on payments under section 1304 of title 31 being used for or transferred to the Anti-Weaponization Fund. The motion failed 49 to 50, so a yes vote from Ricketts alone would have adopted it. The Senate passed the bill the next day after rejecting repeated attempts by members of both parties to prohibit or restrict the fund, from which pardoned January 6 rioters had sought payouts.
- Ricketts Voted Against Barring Payments to People Convicted of Assaulting Police on January 6. On June 5, 2026, Ricketts voted against waiving budget rules for an amendment to prohibit the Department of Justice from using taxpayer funds to make settlement payments to individuals convicted of assaulting law enforcement officers on January 6, 2021; it got 54 votes, six short of the 60 needed. He also voted against a second amendment to bar such payments, and against amendments to prohibit the distribution of Federal funds to people convicted of certain crimes and to limit judgments and settlements paid from the Treasury. Two of the officers who defended the Capitol on January 6, 2021, are suing to stop payments from a new fund. The fund was never set up: a judge has frozen the fund's formation, and Blanche formally rescinded the plan in August 2026.
- Ricketts Voted Against Compensating the Officers Who Defended the Capitol. On June 5, 2026, Ricketts voted against waiving budget rules for an amendment to provide compensation to law enforcement officers who defended the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, from the Justice Department's fund; it failed 52 to 47 under a 60-vote rule. By early January 2025 the government had charged just over 1,580 people for crimes related to the riot, 608 of whom were charged with assaulting, resisting or impeding law enforcement, according to Justice Department figures.
What the Justice Department Under Officials Pete Ricketts Confirmed Did With Nebraska Voter Records
- Voter file. Nebraska gave the Justice Department its complete voter list with driver's license and Social Security numbers, one of the states to comply with the department's demand, the Brennan Center's tracker shows. The department is led by Todd Blanche, whom Ricketts voted to confirm.
Frequently Asked Questions About Pete Ricketts on Democracy and January 6
What is Pete Ricketts's record on democracy and January 6 under Trump?
Pete Ricketts voted to confirm Emil Bove, who fired the January 6 prosecutors, to a lifetime judgeship and voted to confirm Todd Blanche as attorney general, both by one vote. In June 2026 Ricketts voted against six attempts, one of them decided by his vote, to limit the Justice Department's $1.776 billion fund, including bans on payments to people convicted of assaulting police on January 6. He also confirmed Pam Bondi and Kash Patel, whose department prosecuted the president's critics in cases that mostly failed.
Did Pete Ricketts vote to confirm Emil Bove?
Yes. Pete Ricketts voted on July 29, 2025 to confirm Emil Bove to the Third Circuit, and Bove was confirmed 50 to 49, so every Republican yes vote was needed. NPR reported that the Senate acted as Republicans dismissed whistleblower complaints about his conduct at the Justice Department; Bove denies the allegations.
Did Pete Ricketts vote to stop payments to January 6 rioters?
No. On June 5, 2026, Pete Ricketts voted against an amendment to bar Justice Department settlement payments to individuals convicted of assaulting law enforcement officers on January 6, 2021, which failed with 54 votes under a 60-vote rule. No payment from the fund has been reported; Blanche said it was "dead" after he formally rescinded the plan, and added that he and the President would support a similar measure passed by Congress.
Last updated: 2026-10-25