U.S. District Judge Eleanor Ross recused herself Tuesday from a Justice Department lawsuit against Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, writing that she was acting “out of an abundance of caution for the potential perception of bias” after
Judge in Georgia election records case recuses herself
- U.S. District Judge Eleanor Ross recused herself from the Justice Department’s lawsuit against Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on June 16, citing a potential perception of bias over her attendance at an event for Fani Willis.
- The Justice Department had asked Ross to step aside, noting her reported attendance at a fundraiser or campaign mixer for Willis, the Fulton County district attorney who prosecuted Donald Trump.
- Ross wrote in her order that she “cannot discount” that an objective observer might view her presence at the Willis event as support for the district attorney’s position.
- A court investigation previously found Ross had sex in her chambers with a uniformed police officer, attended a partisan event, and initially lied about the allegations; she received a private reprimand.
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Storylines
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Article metadata
- Published
- Place
- United States
- Topic tags
- election, judiciary, prosecution, law, government
- Storylines
- trump-judicial-challenges
- Primary entities
- Eleanor Ross, Fani Willis, Brad Raffensperger, U.S. Justice Department, Fulton County District Attorney's Office
- Themes
- judicial accountability, election administration, recusal
- Floor values engaged
- Accountability of power, Truthfulness, Informed citizenship
- Source cluster
- cluster_guardian_2026-06-16_us-news-2026-jun-16-judge-recuses-georgi
- Framework version
- 1.3.0
- Generated
- Consensus floor
- v0.3.0
- Mindspec
- v0.3.0