By Nate Raymond
May 29 (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Justice on Friday asked a federal judge to step aside from hearing its bid to force the state of Georgia to turn over a copy of its non-public voter registration list after she was linked to a judicial misconduct case.
The Justice Department made the request a week after a federal judicial panel upheld a private reprimand of an unnamed judge for having sex with a high-ranking police officer in her chambers within earshot of law clerks.
Recently
released judicial misconduct orders imposing the sanction did not publicly disclose the name of the judge. But the Justice Department cited news outlets that had identified the jurist as U.S. District Judge Eleanor Ross in Atlanta, who is hearing the voter rolls-related case.
A February order by the 11th Circuit Judicial Council found that the judge engaged in an extramarital affair and had sex with the officer and also attended a political campaign event for an unnamed district attorney.
The Justice Department said that district attorney was 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."
The department said that assuming Ross, an appointee of Democratic President Barack Obama, is the judge at issue in the judicial misconduct case, her recusal was warranted due to the appearance of bias her appearance at the Willis event created.
"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," Justice Department lawyers wrote.
Ross's court did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The judge, who had been set to hear arguments in the department's lawsuit Wednesday, has previously through her court declined to comment on the misconduct case.
Willis, whose office has not responded to requests for comment on the misconduct case, had in 2023 charged now-President Donald Trump and 18 co-defendants over what she alleged was a sweeping criminal conspiracy to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results after being defeated in his re-election bid to Democrat Joe Biden.
An appeals court removed Willis, an elected Democrat in Atlanta, from the case in 2024. The court said she had created an "appearance of impropriety" by having a romantic relationship with the special prosecutor she had hired to lead the case.
Following her removal, the case was dismissed in 2025 after Trump returned to the White House by another prosecutor who took it over.
The case is United States v. Raffensperger, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, No. 1:26-CV-485.
For the United States: William Mohrman of the U.S. Department of Justice
For Raffensperger: Bryan Tyson of Tyson Younker
Read more:
Panel upholds US judge's private reprimand for affair with police officer
Trump wins dismissal of Georgia 2020 election interference case
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston)
