DOJ seeks removal of Judge Eleanor Ross in Georgia election case

Department of Justice Georgia on Friday asked federal judge Eleanor Ross to recuse herself from a pending case involving election records, citing media reports identifying Ross as the same judge who was disciplined for attending a victory party for the district attorney’s campaign.

The DOJ said if Ross is that judge, “it creates the appearance of bias,” because the winning party in May 2024 would have been for Fulton County DA Fani Willis, who prosecuted President Donald Trump for an alleged conspiracy to overturn the results of his 2020 election loss to former President Joe Biden in Georgia.

“A judge who attended a party celebrating the election of a Democrat and is known for suing a Republican president for alleged election interference cannot preside over a case related to the President’s efforts to ensure election integrity,” the DOJ said in Ross’s motion to dismiss. US District Court in Atlanta.

The DOJ did not claim in the filing that Ross, 58, has been identified as an independently disciplined judge, and CNBC has not confirmed that he is a judge.

CNBC this week asked two of Ross’s clerks to confirm with a reporter whether he is a judge disciplined by the Judicial Council. Ross did not answer those questions.

“The Judicial Council of the Eleventh Circuit The filing said a ‘subject judge’ was found to have committed judicial misconduct by participating in a partisan and political event.

The Eleventh Judicial Circuit consists of the federal courts of Georgia, Florida, and Alabama. Ross has served as a federal judge since 2014, when she was nominated by then-President Barack Obama.

The DOJ is suing Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger over his refusal to turn over election records to the Justice Department as part of an investigation to determine the state’s compliance with federal election law.

The same disciplinary action taken against the unnamed judge by a Judicial Council found that the unnamed judge had had extramarital sexual relations with a high-ranking police officer in front of his staff, and when confronted about it he initially denied the allegations.

The 11th Circuit imposed the sanctions on an unidentified judge, who agreed with them. The sanctions included ordering him to write apology letters to six former law clerks who were interviewed in the investigation; The foregoing service as chief judge in the federal district in which he sits; and refraining from sitting on any judicial conference committee.

Ross is a former prosecutor in the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office, having served as Senior Assistant District Attorney from 1998 to 2002.

A photo of Willis’ ex-boyfriend, Nathan Wade, from her primary election victory party in May 2024 shows Ross standing in the background holding what appears to be a martini glass.

The DOJ said in its denial motion that this week, “various news outlets identified Judge Ross as the subject judge” who was disciplined.

The motion cited disciplinary findings in the case of the unnamed judge.

“Three former clerks recalled the subject judge saying that the judge had
“Consumed martinis at a victory party for the District Attorney,” the DOJ quoted in its filing.

The quote continued, “Soon after presiding over a criminal hearing, you told an intern that you had too many martinis the night before at what could have been a political event for a district attorney.”

The filing said the DOJ “has not received any reports related to a sitting federal judge attending an election party celebrating the victory of a candidate for partisan office.”

“In any event, Judge Ross should recuse himself from any case that an objectively reasonable observer would allege involves partisan or electoral politics, including this case,” the filing said.