The House Judiciary Committee’s top Republican said his staff is looking at possible congressional action after a Georgia federal judge had an affair in her chambers, in earshot of clerks, and lied to judiciary officials about it.
Judiciary Chairman
The “key fact,” he said in a brief interview, was that Ross lied to the judges investigating her misconduct. A judicial special committee report, released publicly in May, found the judge made “false statements” to the chief judges of her district and of the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, which oversees federal courts in Georgia, Florida, and Alabama.
“We’re looking at it. We’re going to run it by our members and see,” Jordan said.
Jordan also wouldn’t rule out impeachment as a possible response, a rare process for judges historically.
“Everything’s on the table,” Jordan said. “We don’t take anything off the table.”
A judicial council order found that the judge had sexual intercourse with a police commander in her chambers during business hours, and made false statements about her conduct in violation of ethics rules. The relationship resulted in a “chambers workplace that was extremely uncomfortable and troubling for clerks,” the special panel’s report said.
The council also found that the judge improperly attended a political event, when she went to a primary campaign watch party for District Attorney Fani Willis, who brought charges against President Donald Trump related to his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.
The judiciary didn’t name the judge in the decision, but she has been identified by Bloomberg Law as Ross, an Obama appointee who joined the bench in 2014.
Read more: Eleanor Ross Is US Judge Reprimanded for Sex in Chambers
Following Bloomberg Law’s report, the Justice Department asked Ross to take herself off a case involving the government’s request for Georgia voter information, arguing her appearance at the party creates an appearance of bias in an election-related case.
Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee’s courts panel whose district includes the Atlanta suburbs, said he is “able to live” with the Eleventh Circuit’s decided penalty against Ross.
Johnson also said he plans to reintroduce legislation, known as the Judiciary Accountability Act, “very soon” that would extend anti-discrimination protections under federal civil rights law to federal judiciary employees, including clerks.
Fifteen federal judges have been impeached in US history, and the most recent impeachment proceeding was in 2010.
In 2024, a top judiciary official recommended that Congress impeach an Alaska federal judge, who resigned after he was found to have committed sexual misconduct. The judiciary found that Joshua Kindred, a Trump appointee, created a hostile work environment for his law clerks, had an “inappropriately sexualized” relationship with a former clerk after her clerkship ended while she was a prosecutor, and made “false and misleading statements” to those investigating the misconduct.
However, the Republican-controlled House didn’t ultimately move to impeach him.
House Republicans have filed impeachment resolutions for a number of federal judges who have ruled against the Trump administration, though the chamber hasn’t moved forward with those efforts. Judges have decried these resolutions as efforts to undermine the judiciary’s independence.