The Department of Justice filed a motion Friday asking a federal judge in Georgia to remove herself from a case involving election records, pointing to reports that she was previously disciplined for attending a partisan political event.
The motion targets Judge Eleanor Ross, who presides over a case in which the DOJ is suing Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. The lawsuit seeks election records the DOJ says are needed to determine whether Georgia is complying with federal election law. Raffensperger has refused to turn those records over.
According to CNBC, which reviewed the filing, the DOJ argued that if Ross is the same judge identified in recent media reports as having been disciplined by the Eleventh Circuit's Judicial Council, "it creates the appearance of bias." The disciplinary action involved a judge who attended a victory party for a Fulton County district attorney's campaign in May 2024.
That district attorney was Fani Willis, who prosecuted President Donald Trump over an alleged conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
"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 concerning that President's efforts to ensure election integrity," the DOJ said in the motion, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Atlanta.
The DOJ said in the filing that it did not independently confirm that Ross is the disciplined judge. CNBC also reported that it has not independently confirmed that identification. Ross did not respond to queries from two of her clerks that were passed along at CNBC's request.
The Eleventh Circuit Judicial Council, which covers federal courts in Georgia, Florida, and Alabama, found that an unidentified judge committed judicial misconduct by attending what it described as a "partisan and political event." The same disciplinary investigation found that the same unidentified judge had engaged in extramarital sex in chambers with a high-ranking police officer in earshot of staff, and initially gave false denials when confronted about it.
The sanctions imposed included writing letters of apology to six former law clerks interviewed during the probe, giving up the opportunity to serve as chief judge in their district, and stepping back from any Judicial Conference committee assignments.
Ross has served as a federal judge since 2014, when she was nominated by then-President Barack Obama. Before that, she worked as a senior assistant district attorney in the Fulton County District Attorney's Office from 1998 through 2002.
A photograph of Willis' former boyfriend, Nathan Wade, taken at Willis's primary election victory party in May 2024, appears to show Ross in the background holding what appears to be a martini glass. The DOJ's filing noted that several news outlets this week identified Ross as the judge named in the disciplinary proceedings.
Ross has not publicly responded to the recusal request as of Friday.
