Federal Judge Eleanor Ross Faces Calls for Congressional Inquiry After Sexual Misconduct and Lying to Investigators

U.S. District Judge Eleanor Ross of Atlanta is facing congressional impeachment resolutions filed by Reps. Clay Fuller and Andrew Clyde, both Georgia Republicans, following a disciplinary investigation by the 11th Circuit Judicial Council. The investigation, initiated by Chief Judge William Pryor after a law clerk blew the whistle, found that Ross had sex at least five times in her judicial chambers with a high-ranking uniformed Atlanta police officer — identified in some reports as Major K. Collier — within earshot of staff. When first confronted with the allegations, Ross specifically denied each one and suggested her law clerk had fabricated the claims in retaliation; she later admitted to the extramarital relationship. The Judicial Council ultimately issued only a private reprimand, required Ross to write apology letters to six former clerks, and barred her from serving as chief judge or on judiciary-wide committees — a sanction critics, including legal scholars and the judicial accountability group Fix the Court, have called wholly inadequate. Ross subsequently wrote to at least one former clerk acknowledging her conduct was "patently wrong" and apologizing for her "false accusation" against the clerk. The House Judiciary Committee, chaired by Rep. Jim Jordan, must now decide whether to open formal impeachment proceedings; the Department of Justice has separately sought Ross's recusal from a Georgia election records case, citing her attendance at a partisan event connected to Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.