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Confirmation Hearing of U.S. District Court Judge Eleanor Ross, May 14, 2014, Senate Judiciary Committee – C-Span
C-Span
The Justice Department on Friday asked Georgia federal Judge Eleanor Ross to recuse herself from a pending election ballot case, citing media reports that identified Ross as the same judge who was punished for attending a victory party for a district attorney’s campaign.
The DOJ said that if Ross is that judge, “that creates the appearance of bias” because the winning party in May 2024 would have been for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who indicted President Donald Trump for an alleged conspiracy to overturn the results of his 2020 election loss in Georgia to former President Joe Biden.
“A 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 involving that president’s efforts to ensure election integrity,” the DOJ said in the motion to dismiss Ross, filed in U.S. District Court in Atlanta.
The DOJ does not claim in the filing to have independently identified Ross, 58, as the judge who was disciplined, and CNBC has not confirmed that she is the judge.
CNBC asked two of Ross’s employees this week to ask her to confirm to a reporter whether she is the judge disciplined by the Judicial Council.
Ross did not respond to these questions.
“The Eleventh Circuit Judicial Council found that a ‘subject judge’ committed judicial misconduct by attending a partisan political event,” the filing states.
The Eleventh Circuit includes federal courts in Georgia, Florida and Alabama. Ross has been 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 materials to the Justice Department as part of an investigation to determine the state’s compliance with federal election law.
Attendees arrive to speak with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis after she won the Democratic primary.
Brynn Anderson | AP
The same disciplinary action taken by a judicial council against the unidentified judge revealed that the unidentified judge had had extramarital sex in chambers with a senior police officer within earshot of his staff, and initially falsely denied these allegations when confronted.
The 11th Circuit imposed sanctions on the unidentified judge, who agreed with them. The sanctions included ordering them to write letters of apology to six former court reporters interviewed as part of the investigation; Refrain from serving as chief judge in the federal district in which they sit; and to refrain from sitting on a committee of the Judicial Conference.
Ross is a former prosecutor in the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office, where he served as a senior assistant district attorney from 1998 to 2002.
A photo taken by Willis’ former boyfriend Nathan Wade from her May 2024 primary victory party appears to show Ross in the background, seemingly holding a martini glass.
Former special prosecutor Nathan Wade arrives before Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis speaks after winning the Democratic primary on Tuesday, May 21, 2024, in Buckhead, Georgia.
Brynn Anderson | AP
The DOJ noted in its motion to dismiss that this week “various news outlets identified Judge Ross as the subjugated judge” who was subject to disciplinary action.
The motion cited disciplinary findings in the unidentified judge’s case.
“Three former employees remembered the judge in charge and said the judge did it
consumed martinis at a victory party for a district attorney,” the DOJ cited in its filing.
“Immediately after presiding over … a criminal hearing, you told an intern that you had drunk too many martinis the night before at what might have been a political event for a district attorney,” the citation continued.
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The filing states that the DOJ “has found no reported decision involving a sitting federal judge attending a campaign party celebrating the victory of a candidate for party office.”
“In any event, Judge Ross must recuse herself from any case that would appear to an objective, reasonable observer to imply partisan or electoral politics, including this case,” the filing says.
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