The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a recusal motion asking a federal judge in Atlanta to remove herself from an ongoing dispute over Georgia election records. The department cited recent disciplinary proceedings against the judge and her prior public appearances as the basis for the request.
The Justice Department argued in its filing that the judge previously attended a public event honoring Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. Willis is the prosecutor who brought state criminal charges against President Donald Trump over his administration’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The department said the judge’s attendance at the Willis event raised questions about her capacity to remain impartial in the federal election records dispute.
The recusal motion centers on a formal “private reprimand” recently issued to a federal judge operating within the 11th Judicial Circuit. The circuit’s geographic jurisdiction encompasses Alabama, Florida, and Georgia.
According to the department’s filing, a formal court investigation concluded that a judge engaged in sexual activity inside a courthouse with a high-ranking uniformed police officer. The investigation found that the encounter occurred within earshot of courthouse staff.
The court’s probe further determined that the same judge had attended a partisan political event. When the allegations first surfaced, the judge publicly denied them. The court investigation ultimately concluded that the judge initially lied to deny the allegations before the misconduct was substantiated.
The official judicial investigation that produced the reprimand did not publicly name the federal judge who was disciplined. The court’s report also did not specify the exact location of the courthouse involved, referring only to the broader 11th Circuit jurisdiction.
In its motion to the court, the Justice Department stated that it was relying on independent media reports to identify U.S. District Judge Eleanor Ross in Atlanta as the federal judge who received the private reprimand. The department did not include an internal judicial ethics report in the filing to independently confirm the media reports.
The recusal request arrives during a multi-year legal battle over the federal government’s access to Georgia’s 2020 election records. The dispute has repeatedly drawn the 11th Circuit into reviewing the handling of physical ballots, voter registration lists, and the operational security of the elections office in Fulton County.
Fani Willis has faced sustained legal and political scrutiny since her office filed a sweeping criminal indictment against Trump and 18 co-defendants in 2023. The Justice Department’s motion underscores the department’s position that a judge overseeing federal election-related litigation should not maintain visible public ties to the state prosecutors handling parallel cases.
Federal judges presiding over cases where their impartiality could reasonably be questioned are typically subject to standard judicial recusal protocols. The final decision on whether to grant the Justice Department’s motion rests with the judge named in the request.