DOJ seeks Judge Eleanor Ross recusal in Georgia election case, citing reports she was disciplined
The Department of Justice on Friday asked Georgia federal judge Eleanor Ross to recuse herself from a pending case involving election records, citing media reports
The Department of Justice on Friday asked Georgia 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 a district attorney's campaign. The DOJ said that if Ross is that judge, "it creates the appearance of bias," because the victory party would have been in May 2024 for Fulton County DA Fani Willis, who prosecuted 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 concerning that President's efforts to ensure election integrity," the DOJ said in the motion for Ross' recusal, which was 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 this week asked two of Ross's clerks to ask her to confirm to a reporter whether she is the judge disciplined by the Judicial Council. Ross did not respond to those queries. "The Eleventh Circuit's Judicial Council found that a 'Subject Judge' committed judicial misconduct by attending a partisan and political event," the filing noted. The Eleventh Judicial Circuit comprises federal courts in 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 a probe to ascertain the state's compliance with federal election law.
The BriefWire