There is a bizarre controversy out of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, where a federal judge has been reprimanded for engaging in repeated, loud sexual encounters during office hours in chambers with a police officer. While the judge lied to investigators and disrupted the work of court staff, the Eleventh Circuit decided to give only a “private reprimand” and to withhold the identity of the district court judge. However, legal sleuths have pieced together clues and identified one judge in Atlanta as the likely culprit.
In February, the Judicial Council issued an order with a “private reprimand.” The order contained an array of details that law professor John Blackman analyzed with impressive research. While he admits that he cannot conclusively prove that she is the referenced judge, he declared that “there is only one judge who checks all of those boxes: District Court Judge Eleanor Ross.”
Ironically, among the clues about the judge’s identity, the order mentions that the judge attended the “victory party for a District Attorney” in 2024, the night before “the judge’s summer interns’ first day.” The Georgia primary was on May 21, 2024, and the date coincides with the victory party for Fani Willis, who won the Democratic primary for Fulton County District Attorney. The irony would be crushing since Willis destroyed her own case against Trump and his associates after appointing an attorney with whom she had a sexual relationship.
Putting the judge’s identity aside, I am more concerned with the Circuit’s conclusion that the judge should be left with a private, anonymous reprimand, given the astonishing scope of the misconduct found by the Judicial Council.
The Court describes repeated sexual encounters during office hours that were so audible that clerks and staff were left in uncomfortable silence. The other individual is described as “a high-ranking PD officer.” The court states that
“It is also worth noting the fact that the Subject Judge created a vulnerability to extortion. For two years, the Subject Judge was a federal district judge who routinely heard criminal cases engaged in a secret extramarital relationship with a prominent officer of a large law enforcement agency in the judge’s district—with the affair consisting of sexual intercourse in the Subject Judge’s chambers during working hours.”
The Court describes the awkward moments as staff were subjected to moans and noises from the judge’s chambers as these trysts took place. The court recounts:
“The Subject Judge characterized the allegations as ‘outrageous’ and ‘baseless’ and specifically denied each one.11 Apparently aware that Law Clerk A was the source of the allegations, the Subject Judge noted that the judge had repeatedly chastised Law Clerk A for performance issues, including ‘being on [the clerk’s] cell phone in court and in the office,’ ‘arriving to the office late,’ and wearing attire that the judge considered ‘too casual.’ The Subject Judge implied that Law Clerk A might have made allegations as a means of retaliating against the Subject Judge.”
So this judge not only lied but attacked the clerk. The court order contained emails and communications in which the judge states that the clerk is disgruntled and unreliable. The result was an investigation as the judge continues to lie about the long-standing affair.
The other individual is described solely as a high-ranking police officer.
This is an extraordinary and serious series of ethical violations. It directly undermined the integrity of the court and created a dysfunctional work environment. The officer and the department are likely parties in cases before the court. The judge must be independent in dealing with officers and the department. The use of the chambers for sexual encounters must have created a hostile work environment for many clerks and staff.
Then there are the repeated lies to fellow judges and investigators. Lying to federal investigators can be a crime under 18 U.S.C. 1001, and such cases can come before this judge.
All of this leaves me baffled about the decision to enter a private reprimand. The judge agrees not to serve as Chief Judge or take positions on judicial committees. Yet the judge is allowed to continue to perform that most important function of being a judge. More importantly, counsel and parties are left without confirmation of the judge’s identity. There are myriad cases in which a judge could have a conflict of interest. Parties should be able to raise such conflicts rather than be left wondering if they have “that judge” in random assignments.
The use of court property for sexual liaisons with a police officer and then lying about it should warrant a bit more than an anonymous order, private reprimand, and a waiving of future positions. This judge, who has shown serious ethical concerns, will continue to render judgments on others.
If an officer had repeatedly lied to the court, would the contempt citation for the individual be anonymous with only voluntary waivers of future positions?
In the end, determining the identity of the judge is less challenging than the reasoning of the Judicial Council.
Here is the opinion: Eleventh Circuit Order
I wonder who was on the 11th Circuit Judicial Panel that reached this disgraceful decision?
Conservatives are often outspoken about other people having sex, unless it is Conservatives having sex with children and then they don’t care to talk about it.
I think it was less about her sex than where and when she did it as well as her lying about and accusing the folks who work with her.
The lies, the false accusations, and the tawdry and nearly public behavior add up to her being a disgraceful person who should hold no public office.
Would you employ someone who behaved like this in any position? Working girls in cat houses have better behavior and morals.
But then, it’s only federal court rather than a cat house where higher standards are maintained.
The Judicial report said, she lacked candor. It did not say a liar nor lies. Why is that? Did it mention ethics? It’s an interesting report. It had a missing sofa cushion.
You mean like all those fine democrats visiting Epstein island?
Anon, you’re saying she’s not a fornicator and also saying righties are pedos and lefties aren’t pedos?
The co-conspirator, so to speak, wasn’t Congressman, 9th District of Texas and Decompensating TDS Patient, Brotha Al Green, was it?
He was pretty frisky with his cane at the SOTU.
No, no, my bad; wrong state.
Congress Should Not Turn Away from Judges Behaving Badly
Michael S. Kochin
When the Framers penned Article III, they designed a judiciary insulated from the fleeting whims of majoritarian factions, granting federal judges life tenure to protect their decisional independence “during good Behaviour.” They did not, however, intend to create a separate caste of unaccountable magistrates operating entirely above the moral and legal constraints of the citizens they judge.
Yet, if we examine the recent internal disposition of Judicial Complaint No. 11-25-90212 by the Judicial Council of the Eleventh Circuit and its subsequent affirmation by the Committee on Judicial Conduct and Disability (C.C.D. No. 26-01), it is clear that our jurists have transformed constitutional insulation into a guild privilege.
The facts substantiated by the special committee’s investigation read less like the record of an honorable court and more like a sordid farce. Over a two-year period, a federal district judge engaged in an extramarital affair with a high-ranking police commander from her jurisdiction, culminating in repeated loud acts of sexual intercourse within her judicial chambers, during business hours, and within clear hearing distance of her horrified law clerks. Beyond the obvious degradation of the dignity of her office, this relationship created an unmitigated conflict-of-interest risk within a district where that exact police department routinely litigated civil and criminal cases. Bloomberg has now reported that the judge is Judge Eleanor Ross of the Northern District of Georgia.
Far more alarmingly, when first confronted with these reports by her chief judge, Judge Ross explicitly and repeatedly made material false statements to obstruct the inquiry. She denied the intercourse, which had to be proven by testing her office couch for bodily fluids, and claimed that her law clerk had fabricated the allegations out of personal malice.
In any other professional setting across the length and breadth of this continent, such conduct would invite immediate ruin. In the private sector, conducting an office rendezvous within earshot of subordinates and lying to executives is a textbook termination for cause. In the United States military, the combination of dereliction of duty, conduct unbecoming an officer, and making false official statements would eventuate in a court-martial, loss of rank, separation, and potential confinement.
Yet, what was the stern correction meted out by the self-policing guild of the federal bench? A private reprimand, an indefinite ban from voluntary administrative assignments, and a settlement requiring the judge to write “letters of apology” to her former clerks.
A handful of vaguely worded notes will hardly provide “solace” to those whose professional lives were upended by their superior’s reckless vulgarity. By opting for an internal slap on the wrist, the judicial council explicitly refused to try to set in motion the constitutional machinery of removal. They chose to attempt to insulate a disgraced colleague from a congressional inquiry, signaling to the American people that the judiciary’s institutional reflex is self-preservation and damage control rather than genuine accountability.
This failure is the predictable consequence of the Judicial Conduct and Disability Act of 1980. By enacting this statutory compromise, Congress essentially outsourced its own constitutional prerogative. The legislature permitted the judiciary to police its own behavioral lapses. Yet in our constitutional order, the relation between “bad behavior” and an impeachable “high crime or misdemeanor” is not for the judges to define. It belongs exclusively to the House of Representatives and the Senate.
We are told by the defenders of this administrative firewall that lowering the bar for removal risks weaponizing behavioral investigations, creating a slippery slope that threatens judicial independence. Yet a clear line exists between decisional independence and behavioral impunity. The separation of powers protects a judge’s legal reasonings and findings of evidence from legislative retaliation; it does not protect her from the public consequences of making false statements to Federal officials (a felony according to 18 U.S.C. § 1001) and gross workplace misconduct. Holding a judge accountable for lying to an investigating chief judge about inexcusable sexual misconduct has zero bearing on the autonomy of her rulings.
When the misconduct is undeniable and thoroughly documented, the constitutional process can operate with bipartisan efficiency. The removals of Judges Walter Nixon and Thomas Porteous were not partisan bloodbaths. In those impeachments, a self-respecting House and Senate briefly located its spine to defend the dignity of the judiciary.
The fault, my friends, is ours for permitting our representatives to remain passive spectators while the judiciary administers its own double standards. My own representative, the Honorable Jamie Raskin, serves as the Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee—the very body charged with initiating the process of high oversight. Yet, in our deeply fractured polity, we have arrived at a grim equilibrium where factional loyalty routinely overrides basic institutional self-respect. Many politicians would sooner tolerate misconduct from an ideologically aligned appointee than risk debate on the character of the magistrates who rule us.
A society that allows its highest magistrates to hide fireable offenses and material falsehoods behind the purple curtain of private reprimands is a society sliding into decadence. If the traditional avenues of accountability are to be restored, Congress must aggressively reclaim its constitutional duties. We must demand that our representatives stop hiding behind the self-policing mechanisms of the 1980 Act. When a judge breaches the standard of good behavior so egregiously that she corrupts the very atmosphere of her court, the remedy is not a private apology—it is impeachment and removal.
And the Founders never intended for the severely limited and restricted government of Article 1, Section 8, and “general Welfare”—all, or the whole, proceed—to be “fundamentally transformed” into a massive communist welfare state consisting of, but not limited to, admissions affirmative action, grade-inflation affirmative action, employment affirmative action, quotas, welfare, food stamps, minimum wage, rent control, social services, forced busing, public housing, utility subsidies, CRT, DEI, WIC, SNAP, TANF, HAMP, HARP, TARP, PBS, NPR, Fed, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Environmental Protection Agency, Agriculture, Education, Labor, Energy, Obamacare, Social Security, Social Security Disability, Social Security Supplemental Income, Medicare, Medicaid, “Fair Housing” laws, “Non-Discrimination” laws, etc.
Perhaps she’ll resign but unlikely. It’s old news. Her husband the Honorable Judge Brian Ross of Dekalb appears to forgive her.
Yes, there’s a code of ethics. Sri Srinivasin swore upon the bahagavid Gita and Mamdami swore upon the quoran. Which ethics apply?
Perhaps the PD officer was coerced. I’m not going to Georgia.
Yes, the clerks might have extorted or blackmailed Judge Ross. 6 clerks currently have letters of apology for causing the clerks discomfort? Have they been leaked? 🤔
Nice comment. Do your observations cast doubt on the constitutionality of the Judicial Conduct and Disability Act of 1980?
Seems like it would be a good premise for a challenge.
Did the American Bar Association make any comments on this travesty? No, not about the fornicating judge in Atlanta. It’s what they do in legal circles in Atlanta! Did the ABA make any comments about Justice Amy Coney Barrett being swatted? Nope.
Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett targeted in ‘swatting’ call
https://www.fox5dc.com/news/amy-coney-barrett-swatting-call-supreme-court-may-27-2026
It happened in Fairfax County (VA). George Soros sponsored Democrat, Steve T. Descano, is Fairfax Commonwealth’s Attorney who is soft on violent crime, where violent crime has soared under his watch, and who is being investigated by the DOJ. All roads lead to DNC.
Note to FBI: it’s called Guerrilla warfare, orchestrated by Democrats.
by any means necessary
– Hasan Kwame Jeffries, Brother of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, vis a vis John Brown
And did Merrick Garland prosecute street thugs trying to intimidate conservative justices in spring 2022, to interfere with the Dobbs decision after the leak? No. Street thuggery against conservatives is all part of the communist revolution. And Merrick Garland is the most corrupt attorney general in American history.
18 U.S.C. §1507 — Whoever, with the intent of interfering with, obstructing, or impeding the administration of justice, or with the intent of influencing any judge, juror, witness, or court officer, in the discharge of his duty, pickets or parades in or near a building housing a court of the United States, or in or near a building or residence occupied or used by such judge, juror, witness, or court officer, or with such intent uses any sound-truck or similar device or resorts to any other demonstration in or near any such building or residence, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.
1st Amendment
Congress shall make no law…abridging…the right of the people PEACEABLY TO ASSEMBLE….
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
The people who have no intention PEACEABLY TO ASSEMBLE must not be on TV.
They must be in jail. Period. Full stop!
” is all part of the communist revolution. “
Yes, but will it succeed? I think not.
I responded to estovir but was censored. The comment was perfectly civil.
Carpe diem
Can any legal eagle on here, explain how this Judge can conduct a non-biased hearing?????? Anyone?????
Bias is old fashioned. Laws should be upgraded to reflect the ethics of the DNC.
Imagine, if America had a Supreme Court, Zorro Madmani would have been put out of business by the absolute 5th Amendment right to private property, which, by the way, is not public, for those of you in Rio Linda.
It was the wholly unconstitutional anti-American irrational communist and mentor of Madmani, Karl Marx, who swore to abolish private property.
I ‘ll say one thing for the Judge, She’s got alot of spunk…
The Iranian Assessment
Audacy – Coast To Coast AM – Latest Episode – Lower Right – Hover @ 10:09:15 https://www.audacy.com/stations/kmbz/shows/coast-to-coast-am-97e85
Judges and teachers, the two most overrated professionals in the nation.
We can’t thank you enough, Abe!
Is this the guy? https://www.atlantapd.org/about-apd/community-services-division/deputy-chief-kelley-collier-community-services-division
Turley’s serving of MAGA spam today concerns a judge gettin’ it on in chambers. Yes, it’s inappropriate and the conduct deserves punishment, but who was harmed here? Turley, why don’t you write about Trump pardoning the J6 insurrectionists who attacked and injured Capitol Police officers, trashed the Capitol building, doing millions of dollars of damage that we taxpayers had to pay to fix, and who tried to stop the peaceful transfer of power, all over a lie? To add insult to injury, Trump files a baseless, frivolous lawsuit in which he was both the plaintiff and defendant, and then, right before the due date for a brief explaining how or why there was federal jurisdiction since Trump was both plaintiff and defendant, toadie Todd Blanche “settles” on Trump’s behalf to the tune of $1.776 BILLION of our tax dollars to be shelled out to anyone Trump claims is a victim of “lawfare”–including the Oath Keepers, Proud Boys, 3 percenters, White Supremacists and other cretins who committed these crimes in his name.
All of which is part of Trump’s mental defect of malignant narcissism–see, he can never be wrong and can never be rejected, so when he screwed up our economy and COVID and got voted out of office, like all the polls said he would, this result could only be due to widespread fraud. So, at Giuliani’s suggestion, Trump lies and claims there was widespread voter fraud, he tried to bully Pence into refusing to accept certified vote totals, tried to bully Raffensberger and others to falsify vote totals to say he “won”, and got fake electors to file false Electoral College documents. He also sent an army of losers who believed his lies to the Capitol telling them to “fight like hell or you’re not going to have a country any more”–so they did that. For purposes of “plausible deniability”, he threw in a comment about “peaceably”, but the disciples KNEW what he wanted them to do. In fact, in Andrew Weissman’s #1 best selling new book “Liar’s Kingdom”, he cites several persons who say that Trump has admitted he KNOWS he lost in 2020. But, he can never be wrong, so he not only will keep denying the loss in 2020, he’ll do everything possible to try to create a “truth” from a lie–from seizing ballots and machines, to pardoning his private army.
So Biden’s DOJ appropriately prosecuted as many of the insurrectionists as could be identified–but, since Trump was the “victim” of a “stolen election”, their crimes couldn’t be crimes, so the insurrectionists are the “victims of lawfare”–the prosecutions were wrongful, according to MAGA doxology. Biden’s administration that knows that Trump lied was supposed to just ignore the assaults on police officers and property damage to the Capitol that were the product of that lie? Now, these losers are at the ready to do Trump’s bidding, knowing that they not only will not be prosecuted, but may well benefit financially. Some are bragging on social media about the new houses and cars they’re going to buy with our tax dollars, while Americans struggle to pay the increased cost of gas, groceries, housing and everything else.
Trump has taken corruption to a new level, totally unanticipated by our founders. Eric Trump is an officer in a corporation that makes robots and that received a multi million dollar contract with the federal government. Trump has accepted lavish gifts from heads of state who want to curry favor, including a luxury flying palace that he considers to be his own property, plus he has sold his worthless cryptocurrency to heads of state as well as various Trump-branded products and his personal wealth is soaring. Bezos paid Melania $40 million for a “movie” that was an unmitigated flop, but it was a quid pro quo for currying favor, like allowing mergers and overlooking antitrust rules. Our national debt has reached a new level. Canadians, formerly our closest ally, are no longer vacationing in the US, they are so disgusted by Trump and his threats to take over their country. Now, Trump is threatening Cuba, and has cut off fuel from Venezuela that they need to generate electricity. Without refrigeration, they cannot store food, and are suffering. Trump started a war with Iran, after canceling the JCPOA, and has no exit strategy. When people point out that Obama’s agreement with Iran provided for “no nuclear weapons development”, Trump reported has backed out of a similar agreement because HIS agreement has to be BETTER than Obama’s was. Trouble is, Obama’s agreement was clear and unequivocal on no nuclear development. We are blowing a billion dollars a day on the war, we have lost 14 service members, hundreds more have been seriously injured, our weapons inventory is getting depleted, and it’s all over an unnecessary war started a cover to help Israel get away with bombing Lebanon, so it can steal some of its territory just like it stole land from the Palestinians. We are financially suppporting Israel, but not starving children in Africa–that’s because of the wealthy Jews who donated hundreds of millions to Trump’s campaign.
But, Turley wants to write about some judge gettin’ it on in chambers and only receiving a private reprimand? MAGA spam.
Is this AnonNutchachachaYmous?
Thorazine aisle 9, STAT!
Is this Judge Ross? Why do all roads for D’a lead to Trump.
It’s Gigi with her usual 10,000,000-word lunacy dump that nobody will ever read because it’s both too long and too crazy.
That accurate statement is pearls before the swine that feed at Turley’s Trough of Rage.
This is to everyone claiming that title 18 of the United States code section 1001 does not apply to this judge because she was in an administrative hearing. That’s absolutely false, the exception to 1001 is for court proceedings and is typically referred to as the quote “Litigation Privilege”, and unless you’ve been to law school and you understand what this means I’m not going to explain it to you. But it can get very complex and it does not apply to this judge and her superiors at the 11th circuit; that’s flat out wrong. This code refers to the litigation privilege for in court testimony. 1001 applies to Judge Ross.
Stitch, make it simple. She’s a ho.
“That’s absolutely false . . .”
Exactly. And thank you for the explanation.
I was going to make that point but got tired of dealing with the ignorant know-it-alls.
2 tier justice
The rule of law and equal justice is revealed again and again as an illusion. The powerful have a different set of rules.
Click the link and confirm your assumptions.
Here come the judge. Here come the judge.
Didn’t you mean “Sounds like the judge has comed?”
Darren meant “Hear come the judge.”
Hey, remember Hunter Biden? All of that $5 million or was it $10 million.
What a piker. Donny Jr is walking away with $1.5 billion, at least.
Hunter…what a piker.
Way to go Donny boy.
Yeah! Biden’s money was generated from a shakedown of our own tax dollars, Trump money is being generated from commerce.
Has anyone purchased any of Hunter’s artwork since his dad dropped out of the race?
Why would a family with no interest’s outside public service need 10’s of shell LLC’s?
Money laundering operations ?
Thou Shalt Not Covet
Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness
“Private Reprimand” A spanking?
Having sex in your office on the clock is a form of sexual harassment. It is punishable by immediate termination in every public employment handbook that I am aware of. Case being this is the type of behavior that leads to multimillion dollar lawsuits against the perpetrators as well as the employer. Sexual harassment claims are not limited to the participants of the act but to all parties affected by the misconduct and behavior.
Lying about it and making false statements, I would believe that those are both ethics violations as well as criminal conduct if pursued, let the Human Resources Department and the Chief Judge figure it out as those affected line up to file and the stench fills his chambers. As a minimum, both parties should be terminated.
Having sex in your office on the clock is a form of sexual harassment….. consensual of course. And, so a guy masturbating in the company b/r, closet, parking etc. has to be terminated too?
That would violate the ADA because he is well on the way to blindness!
But what about reasons?
Will they both go to hell, too, eightball?
What’s the reason for keeping her name anonymous after she’d written 6 apologies to staff and clerks? Easily identified after that by gossip. Clerk A was offered another job. She took it. I imagine the remainder signed off on no harm?
Bill and Monica and the blue dress. The investigation was disgusting. The sofa pillow was sent to a lab in another state? It is a public property pillow after all.
Then there’s Nate and Fani. Fani was re-elected. An extramarital affair isn’t really recognized by half the country now. Fyi, men are marrying men. 👀
It’s bad business but the investigation is also. It’s Atlanta.
They both should be terminated immediately. They are both high ranking officers of the court and are expected to abide by their ethics codes. Aside from the horrible example of acceptable workplace conduct as I said earlier, and the liability exposures it presents there are a myriad of employee code of conduct violations associated with it. It casts a shadow over everything and everyone in that department. Someone gets passed over in the rank and file or a case get a favorable outcome now questioned. Who am I to say where they will end up in hell? 🎱 only small cog in big wheel of life.
Eightball, that a prisoner’s dilemma game. Let’s say Judge Ross is stupid? Did she have an attorney? 😂
Let’s get that pillow tested? Psst, the report specified Judge Ross didn’t know it. That missing cushion was sent out for repair. Sounds like she has cards to play.
The religion of punishment if you can imagine.
Carpe diem
Defense will have the names and used for enough money.
“Someone gets passed over in the rank and file or a case get a favorable outcome now questioned.”
I have the same feeling about paying for lavish vacations for Supreme Court Justices for whom no review of their opinions or conduct is possible. If someone got a favorable outcome that was not warranted, that’s what the appeals process is for and why judges are motivated in such cases to rule slightly more negatively for the person they have a relationship with. Again, this doesn’t apply to Supreme Court Justices because they are above review and can do whatever their patrons ask of them, and have.
Having sex in your office on the clock is a form of sexual harassment if it with a subordinate.
Raping children supplied by a known sex trafficker is a stepping stone to becoming President.
Provide your evidence or STFU
I am sure I’m not the only person here sick of your monotonous Epstein BS. Bring it, hard evidence and not in some push pull Democrat slander smear game, provable facts.
IT WAS THE COUCH, EIGHTBALL, not the clock.
Sam, have you finally figured out why you’re wrong? Did you learn the difference between “ formal court proceeding” and “judicial proceeding.
Did you finally figure out that there are subsections (a) and (b)?
Do you finally understand what the words in subsection (b) “DO NOT APPLY” mean?
I’m sure you’re tired of having your a$$ handed to you all day.
Oh oh, George has a hard-on for Sam. Hey, isn’t that sexual harassment, I mean, George being gay etc..
He disappeared after some others took him down again.
MAybe he’s into S&M?
Did he disappear into the closet?