Main: Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis testifies during a hearing on the Georgia election interference case, Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024, in Atlanta (Alyssa Pointer/Pool Photo via AP). Right inset: U.S. District Judge Eleanor Ross (U.S. District Court).
The federal judiciary wouldn”t name one of its own as it reprimanded a judge for having an affair with a high-ranking cop — but it apparently left enough clues for the DOJ to file a recusal motion in a lawsuit against Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
After the Trump administration DOJ in January sought an “unredacted copy of Georgia’s statewide voter registration list,” the lawsuit was assigned to U.S. District Judge Eleanor Ross, a Barack Obama appointee and apparent ally of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, a Democrat whose effort to prosecute Donald Trump ended in failure.
In a recusal motion, the DOJ alluded to a recent determination by the Committee on Judicial Conduct and Disability of the Judicial Conference of the United States upholding a private reprimand of a judge found to have “engaged in judicial misconduct” in at least three ways: by “engaging in an extramarital affair with a high-ranking law enforcement officer and having sexual intercourse in the judge’s chambers during business hours within hearing distance of staff,” by “attending a partisan political event” for Willis, and by “making false statements to the Chief Circuit Judge and Chief District Judge that were material to the investigation of the allegations.”
Though the reprimand neither named Ross nor Willis, a combination of sourced news reports and AI exposed what was hidden.
“The week of May 25, 2026, various news outlets identified Judge Ross as the Subject Judge. If true, Judge Ross’s conduct creates the appearance of impropriety in this case,” warranting recusal, the DOJ said.
A memo attached to the recusal motion mentioned Willis early and often.
“The Eleventh Circuit’s Judicial Council found that a ‘Subject Judge’ committed judicial misconduct by attending a partisan and political event. That event reportedly honored Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who rose to nationwide fame for her failed prosecution of President Trump for alleged crimes related to the 2020 election. Public reporting has identified the Subject Judge as Judge Ross,” the filing said.
The private reprimand went into more detail, claiming Ross told staff she had “too many martinis the night before” at a Willis event.
The law clerk reported that, on multiple occasions, the subject judge engaged in sexual activity with a uniformed law enforcement officer in chambers during work hours within earshot of the judge’s staff. The law clerk also reported that the subject judge failed to mentor the law clerks and edit their work, displayed visible anger to the law clerks, including yelling and cursing, and, on one occasion, told staff that the judge had “too many martinis the night before” at an event for a District Attorney.
Presently, there are several pending motions to dismiss for failure to state a claim. The Trump administration has also filed cross-motions to “compel production of federal election records,” and now the recusal motion that would have a judge other than Ross decide these issues.
Ross responded to the motion by putting a Wednesday hearing on hold until she decides whether to step aside.
