ATLANTA — A federal judge in Georgia was disciplined for inappropriate conduct in the court and ordered to apologize a second time to former staff after the initial attempt was deemed inadequate.
U.S. District Judge Eleanor Ross was investigated after complaints were filed with the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals regarding claims of inappropriate behavior in her chambers.
Six former law clerks told the court that Ross had engaged in an affair with a police officer in her chambers, and reported that she had attended a fundraiser for the campaign of a political candidate.
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The initial investigative report published by the court did not identify Ross as the judge, but confirmed that those claims were factual, putting Ross under fire after she was identified as the judge who had an affair in her chambers.
Following the investigation, US District Court Chief Judge William H. Pryor, Jr. ordered Ross to apologize to her clerks, but that didn’t end the process.
Ross sent an initial apology to her former staff at the end of May, but four of the clerks reported that the apology was not enough, saying it did not meet the requirements of the court’s orders for the apology and remediation.
According to Pryor’s letter to Ross, “the former clerks ‘do not believe the letters of apology we received from Judge Ross comply with the remedial measures recommended by the Special Committee and adopted by the Council.”
In response, Pryor told the embattled judge that her initial apology letters were under investigation for being inadequate, with the letters’ recipients saying her apology to them failed to “make clear to the recipient the sexual misconduct for which the judge is apologizing.”
After Pryor’s letter to Ross about the deficient apologies, the judge sent a new set of letters to the former clerks dated June 11, which review by Pryor found adequately satisfied the court’s order to make things right.
According to the response from Pryor about the new letters, the apologies were enough to not file a new complaint against Ross and he thanked her for her response and consent to disclose the letters to media companies covering the situation.
Channel 2 Action News is now working to obtain a copy of the letter or letters sent to Ross’ former clerks.
In the wake of the affair becoming public, some federal lawmakers from Georgia filed articles of impeachment against Ross for her conduct.
Separately, the White House filed motions in court to remove her from a case she is currently overseeing related to the FBI’s raid on the Fulton County Board of Elections for records from the 2020 election.
The Trump administration filed their request after the investigation into Ross’ conduct showed she had attended fundraisers for the reelection campaign of Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis, who pursued a prosecution effort against President Donald Trump over alleged racketeering efforts to overturn Georgia’s election results that year.
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