Justice Department seeks dismissal of Judge Eleanor Ross in Georgia election lawsuit

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

The Justice Department said Mr. Ross would “appear biased” if he were that judge. That’s because the victory party for Fani Willis, the Fulton County prosecutor who prosecuted President Donald Trump on charges of conspiracy to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election loss to former President Joe Biden, was supposed to take place in May 2024.

“A judge who attended a party celebrating the election of a Democrat known for prosecuting a Republican president on election interference charges cannot preside over a case concerning that president’s efforts to ensure election integrity,” the Justice Department said in a motion to dismiss Ross in U.S. District Court in Atlanta.

The Justice Department did not claim in its filing that it had independently identified Ross, 58, as the judge who was disciplined, and CNBC did not confirm that she was the judge.

CNBC this week asked two of Ms. Ross’s clerks to confirm with reporters whether she was the judge who had been disciplined by the Judicial Council.

Mr. Ross did not respond to those questions.

“The Judicial Council of the Eleventh Circuit has found that the ‘subject judge’ committed judicial misconduct by attending a partisan and political event,” the filing states.

The 11th Judicial Circuit is comprised of federal courts in Georgia, Florida, and Alabama. Ross has served as a federal judge since 2014, when he was appointed by then-President Barack Obama.

The Justice Department is suing Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger for refusing to turn over election records to the Justice Department as part of an investigation into Georgia’s compliance with federal election laws.

The same disciplinary action taken against an unidentified judge by the Judicial Council found that the unidentified judge had engaged in extramarital sex in his room with a high-ranking police officer within earshot of staff, and initially falsely denied the charges when questioned.

The 11th Circuit imposed sanctions on an unidentified judge, and the judge agreed. The sanctions also included an order to write letters of apology to six former law clerks who were interviewed during the investigation. refrain from serving as presiding judge of the federal district in which they sit; and refrain from attending committees of the Judicial Conference.

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

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

In its motion to rescind, the Justice Department noted that this week “various media outlets have identified Judge Ross as a judge subject to discipline.”

The motion cited an unidentified judge’s disciplinary findings in the case.

“Three former clerks recalled that the subject judge said:
drank martinis at the district attorney’s victory party,” the Justice Department quoted in the filing.

“Shortly after you presided over the criminal hearing, you told the intern that you had drunk too many martinis the night before at what appeared to be a political event for the district attorney,” the citation continued.

In the filing, the Justice Department said there were “no reported decisions surrounding the appearance of a sitting federal judge at a campaign party celebrating the victory of a partisan candidate.”

“In any event, Judge Ross must recuse himself from any case, including this one, that an objective, reasonable observer would interpret as engaging in partisan or electoral politics,” the filing states.