Georgia
Impeachment sought against federal judge over alleged sex in chambers, lying to investigators
ATLANTA (AP) — Two congressional Republicans from Georgia have introduced impeachment resolutions against a federal judge in Atlanta who was disciplined after an investigation found she had sex with a police officer in her chambers, attended a partisan political event and lied to investigators looking into the alleged misconduct.
U.S. Reps. Clay Fuller and Andrew Clyde filed the resolutions against U.S. District Judge Eleanor Ross. Clyde wrote Tuesday on social media that Ross’ “deeply disturbing actions prove she is incapable of displaying integrity or impartiality. She must be impeached and removed from the bench.”
It is up to the House Judiciary Committee to decide whether to start impeachment proceedings against Ross. Federal judges are appointed for life and can only be removed from the bench through impeachment.
Ross was nominated to the Northern District of Georgia in January 2014 by then-President Barack Obama, a Democrat, and she was confirmed by the Senate in November of that year. She had previously served as a state court judge in DeKalb County, which includes a small part of Atlanta, since 2011. Before taking the bench, she had worked as a state and federal prosecutor, mostly in Atlanta, for more than a decade.
The investigation of Ross began after one of her law clerks reported that on multiple occasions the judge had engaged in sexual activity with a high-ranking uniformed police officer in her office within earshot of staff. It also was alleged that the judge didn’t properly supervise clerks and on one occasion yelled and cursed at staff.
Ross received a “private reprimand” after the investigation confirmed the sexual activity and found she attended a partisan event and initially lied to deny the allegations.
The court’s investigation did not publicly identify the judge or the court location within the 11th Circuit’s jurisdiction, which includes Alabama, Florida and Georgia. A person familiar with the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter confirmed to The Associated Press that Ross was the judge who was disciplined.
Separately, the Atlanta Police Department has said it has opened an investigation to determine whether the “high-ranking law enforcement officer” found to have had sex with a federal judge in the judge’s chambers is a member of their department.
William Pryor, the chief judge of the 11th Circuit, opened the initial investigation of Ross. He asked her to respond to the clerk’s allegations and she replied the same day and “specifically denied” each allegation. In a follow-up email the next day, the judge speculated to Pryor that the law clerk may have invented things in retaliation for being required to work in the office.
Pryor appointed a special committee to investigate. That investigation was detailed in a report attached to the disciplinary order.
The committee’s review of logs and security footage showed an officer had frequently visited the judge’s chambers in uniform around lunchtime. Six clerks recalled seeing someone who fit the officer’s description, with three remembering overhearing what may have been sexual activity in the judge’s office.
Three clerks remembered bringing summer interns on their first day to watch the judge presiding over a hearing in a criminal case. Right after that, they told the committee, the judge declined to have lunch with the interns, acknowledging having too many martinis the night before at a primary election victory party for a district attorney friend.
The clerks said the judge didn’t provide sufficient guidance and “rarely, if ever, substantively edited civil orders the clerks drafted.” While clerks described an “eggshell culture,” the committee didn’t find evidence of abusive behavior.
The judge ultimately admitted to having an extramarital sexual relationship with the officer but denied the allegations about mistreatment of staff, the committee wrote. The judge acknowledged to the committee having gone to a “mixer” of former employees of a district attorney’s office, where the judge used to work but said it was in a separate room from the victory party.
New York
Ex-Taliban commander gets 42 years in prison
NEW YORK (AP) — A former Taliban commander was sentenced to 42 years in prison on Tuesday for crimes including kidnapping a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and providing support that led to the deaths of three American soldiers.
Haji Najibullah’s sentencing capped a daylong proceeding in Manhattan federal court that featured a dramatic few moments when the reporter, David Rohde, faced Najibullah and described how Najibullah took part in the abduction of him and two other men in 2008 in Afghanistan but was now “refusing to take responsibility as I look at him today.”
Rohde, who is MSNOW’s national security reporter and previously worked for The New York Times and other publications, told Judge Katherine Polk Failla that he was “surprised and disappointed” that Najibullah was trying to blame others and circumstances for his role in the kidnapping of Rohde, another journalist and a driver.
The men were held for more than seven months before making a dramatic escape from a Taliban-controlled compound in Pakistan’s tribal areas.
In April 2025, Najibullah pleaded guilty to providing material support for acts of terrorism and conspiring to take hostages.
The bearded Najibullah, 50, who wore a black skull cap in court Tuesday, admitted that he provided material support including weapons to the Taliban from 2007 to 2009, knowing it would be used to kill U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.
Speaking through an interpreter, Najibullah apologized to Rohde and his family, saying “what happened to him was terrible, and I deeply regret my role in it.”
Standing at a lectern just feet from Najibullah, Rohde said it was Najibullah’s lies that led him to go to what he thought was an interview but what turned into an ambush.
“Hostage taking is a cruel and cowardly crime. Family members spend weeks and months thinking they have the power to save their loved one’s life,” Rohde said, noting it’s “an illusion” because families lack the leverage and vast sums needed to meet ransom demands.
Still, Rohde said, the pain he and those who know him have suffered is dwarfed by the deaths of three U.S. soldiers who were killed by Najibullah’s cohorts in a separate operation.
Three times, he named the soldiers as he spoke, becoming emotional about their deaths, the pain his family endured and his love for journalism.
In a statement afterward, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said the case proves that “those who harm Americans and engage in acts of terrorism will be hunted down and brought to justice, no matter how long it takes.”
As she announced the sentence, the judge praised Rohde for the work that he and his wife have done on behalf of the families of others who were kidnapped.
She said she stopped short of giving Najibullah the life prison sentence that federal sentencing guidelines called for because he had pleaded guilty, sparing more trauma for his victims, and because he was subjected to harsh prison conditions for six years, including during the pandemic.
But she rejected most of the arguments for leniency made by his defense lawyer, who requested an 18-year prison term for his client as he portrayed him as doing what was necessary to protect his homeland during war.
She said fighters under his control attacked a convoy of soldiers, killing three of them.
“I don’t think he needed to pull the trigger, to decapitate a body, to be responsible for what happened,” Failla said.
Rohde called it the “biggest mistake of my life” to set up an interview with Najibullah that resulted in the kidnapping and said he would not have done it if he knew Najibullah was behind the killing of American soldiers.
He noted during his statement in court that the hostage takers had claimed he was a spy “when in fact I was a journalist” who was trying to get the viewpoint of a Taliban commander “to understand their hopes, their lives and their worldview.”
Then, he repeated that he remains “a journalist and I could not be prouder of being part of this profession,” a statement that briefly caused him to get choked up.
North Carolina
Judge dismisses lawsuit by 31 former athletes alleging abuse by ex-head trainer
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A state judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by 31 former N.C. State male athletes alleging sexual abuse under the guise of treatment and harassment by the Wolfpack’s former director of sports medicine.
In orders filed Tuesday, Wake County Superior Court Judge Bryan Collins dismissed claims against Robert M. Murphy Jr., as well as multiple N.C. State athletics officials tied to their oversight rules, citing procedural reasons.
The lawsuit was filed in February in state court in a case that began with a federal lawsuit from a single athlete filed in 2022. That complaint alleged years of misconduct by Murphy, including improper touching of the genitals during massages and intrusive observation while collecting urine samples during drug testing.
Collins granted the motion seeking a dismissal from Murphy’s attorneys, ruling that the statute of limitations had expired in claims dating back as early as 2013.
Collins also dismissed claims against multiple athletics officials such as former athletic director Debbie Yow and current AD Boo Corrigan on jurisdictional grounds. His ruling stated any complaint should go through the North Carolina Industrial Commission — a state agency that deals with workplace matters with N.C. State as a public university — rather than civil court.
Jared Hammett, a Raleigh-based attorney representing Murphy, issued a statement to The Associated Press describing his client as “someone who dedicated his life to working with athletes” while referring to a “rush to judgment” that can impact “real people’s lives.”
“The truth is nothing happened but a man’s career being ruined for money,” Hammett said.
Durham-based attorney Kerry Sutton, who has represented players going back to the original case, said the athletes plan to appeal.
All but two of the 31 athletes are “John Doe” plaintiffs to protect anonymity, while two former men’s soccer players are named.
One is Benjamin Locke, who filed the original complaint in August 2022. The other is one of two athletes who filed their own federal lawsuits in February 2023 and April 2023. The AP typically doesn’t identify those who say they have been sexually assaulted or abused unless the person has spoken publicly about it, which Locke has done.
Sutton, who has represented plaintiffs in each lawsuit, filed to dismiss those pending Title IX lawsuits before moving the case to state-level jurisdiction in September 2025.
Murphy, at N.C. State from 2012-22, was among nine defendants originally named individually. Others were school officials accused of negligence in oversight roles, saying concerns about Murphy’s conduct reached senior levels of the athletic department but the school’s response was insufficient.
Sutton and co-counsel Robert O. Jenkins filed in April to dismiss former N.C. State chancellor Randy Woodson as a defendant.
“N.C. State does not condone sexual misconduct of any kind,” the school said in a statement Tuesday evening. “The health and safety of our students and student-athletes is paramount to the university and our athletic programs.
“We agree with the court’s analysis and the decision that the law supports dismissal of the plaintiffs’ claims in this case. We recognize the immense courage it takes for someone to come forward, and our hearts go out to any student or student-athlete who has been impacted by distressing experiences.”
Impeachment sought against federal judge over alleged sex in chambers, lying to investigators
ATLANTA (AP) — Two congressional Republicans from Georgia have introduced impeachment resolutions against a federal judge in Atlanta who was disciplined after an investigation found she had sex with a police officer in her chambers, attended a partisan political event and lied to investigators looking into the alleged misconduct.
U.S. Reps. Clay Fuller and Andrew Clyde filed the resolutions against U.S. District Judge Eleanor Ross. Clyde wrote Tuesday on social media that Ross’ “deeply disturbing actions prove she is incapable of displaying integrity or impartiality. She must be impeached and removed from the bench.”
It is up to the House Judiciary Committee to decide whether to start impeachment proceedings against Ross. Federal judges are appointed for life and can only be removed from the bench through impeachment.
Ross was nominated to the Northern District of Georgia in January 2014 by then-President Barack Obama, a Democrat, and she was confirmed by the Senate in November of that year. She had previously served as a state court judge in DeKalb County, which includes a small part of Atlanta, since 2011. Before taking the bench, she had worked as a state and federal prosecutor, mostly in Atlanta, for more than a decade.
The investigation of Ross began after one of her law clerks reported that on multiple occasions the judge had engaged in sexual activity with a high-ranking uniformed police officer in her office within earshot of staff. It also was alleged that the judge didn’t properly supervise clerks and on one occasion yelled and cursed at staff.
Ross received a “private reprimand” after the investigation confirmed the sexual activity and found she attended a partisan event and initially lied to deny the allegations.
The court’s investigation did not publicly identify the judge or the court location within the 11th Circuit’s jurisdiction, which includes Alabama, Florida and Georgia. A person familiar with the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter confirmed to The Associated Press that Ross was the judge who was disciplined.
Separately, the Atlanta Police Department has said it has opened an investigation to determine whether the “high-ranking law enforcement officer” found to have had sex with a federal judge in the judge’s chambers is a member of their department.
William Pryor, the chief judge of the 11th Circuit, opened the initial investigation of Ross. He asked her to respond to the clerk’s allegations and she replied the same day and “specifically denied” each allegation. In a follow-up email the next day, the judge speculated to Pryor that the law clerk may have invented things in retaliation for being required to work in the office.
Pryor appointed a special committee to investigate. That investigation was detailed in a report attached to the disciplinary order.
The committee’s review of logs and security footage showed an officer had frequently visited the judge’s chambers in uniform around lunchtime. Six clerks recalled seeing someone who fit the officer’s description, with three remembering overhearing what may have been sexual activity in the judge’s office.
Three clerks remembered bringing summer interns on their first day to watch the judge presiding over a hearing in a criminal case. Right after that, they told the committee, the judge declined to have lunch with the interns, acknowledging having too many martinis the night before at a primary election victory party for a district attorney friend.
The clerks said the judge didn’t provide sufficient guidance and “rarely, if ever, substantively edited civil orders the clerks drafted.” While clerks described an “eggshell culture,” the committee didn’t find evidence of abusive behavior.
The judge ultimately admitted to having an extramarital sexual relationship with the officer but denied the allegations about mistreatment of staff, the committee wrote. The judge acknowledged to the committee having gone to a “mixer” of former employees of a district attorney’s office, where the judge used to work but said it was in a separate room from the victory party.
New York
Ex-Taliban commander gets 42 years in prison
NEW YORK (AP) — A former Taliban commander was sentenced to 42 years in prison on Tuesday for crimes including kidnapping a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and providing support that led to the deaths of three American soldiers.
Haji Najibullah’s sentencing capped a daylong proceeding in Manhattan federal court that featured a dramatic few moments when the reporter, David Rohde, faced Najibullah and described how Najibullah took part in the abduction of him and two other men in 2008 in Afghanistan but was now “refusing to take responsibility as I look at him today.”
Rohde, who is MSNOW’s national security reporter and previously worked for The New York Times and other publications, told Judge Katherine Polk Failla that he was “surprised and disappointed” that Najibullah was trying to blame others and circumstances for his role in the kidnapping of Rohde, another journalist and a driver.
The men were held for more than seven months before making a dramatic escape from a Taliban-controlled compound in Pakistan’s tribal areas.
In April 2025, Najibullah pleaded guilty to providing material support for acts of terrorism and conspiring to take hostages.
The bearded Najibullah, 50, who wore a black skull cap in court Tuesday, admitted that he provided material support including weapons to the Taliban from 2007 to 2009, knowing it would be used to kill U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.
Speaking through an interpreter, Najibullah apologized to Rohde and his family, saying “what happened to him was terrible, and I deeply regret my role in it.”
Standing at a lectern just feet from Najibullah, Rohde said it was Najibullah’s lies that led him to go to what he thought was an interview but what turned into an ambush.
“Hostage taking is a cruel and cowardly crime. Family members spend weeks and months thinking they have the power to save their loved one’s life,” Rohde said, noting it’s “an illusion” because families lack the leverage and vast sums needed to meet ransom demands.
Still, Rohde said, the pain he and those who know him have suffered is dwarfed by the deaths of three U.S. soldiers who were killed by Najibullah’s cohorts in a separate operation.
Three times, he named the soldiers as he spoke, becoming emotional about their deaths, the pain his family endured and his love for journalism.
In a statement afterward, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said the case proves that “those who harm Americans and engage in acts of terrorism will be hunted down and brought to justice, no matter how long it takes.”
As she announced the sentence, the judge praised Rohde for the work that he and his wife have done on behalf of the families of others who were kidnapped.
She said she stopped short of giving Najibullah the life prison sentence that federal sentencing guidelines called for because he had pleaded guilty, sparing more trauma for his victims, and because he was subjected to harsh prison conditions for six years, including during the pandemic.
But she rejected most of the arguments for leniency made by his defense lawyer, who requested an 18-year prison term for his client as he portrayed him as doing what was necessary to protect his homeland during war.
She said fighters under his control attacked a convoy of soldiers, killing three of them.
“I don’t think he needed to pull the trigger, to decapitate a body, to be responsible for what happened,” Failla said.
Rohde called it the “biggest mistake of my life” to set up an interview with Najibullah that resulted in the kidnapping and said he would not have done it if he knew Najibullah was behind the killing of American soldiers.
He noted during his statement in court that the hostage takers had claimed he was a spy “when in fact I was a journalist” who was trying to get the viewpoint of a Taliban commander “to understand their hopes, their lives and their worldview.”
Then, he repeated that he remains “a journalist and I could not be prouder of being part of this profession,” a statement that briefly caused him to get choked up.
North Carolina
Judge dismisses lawsuit by 31 former athletes alleging abuse by ex-head trainer
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A state judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by 31 former N.C. State male athletes alleging sexual abuse under the guise of treatment and harassment by the Wolfpack’s former director of sports medicine.
In orders filed Tuesday, Wake County Superior Court Judge Bryan Collins dismissed claims against Robert M. Murphy Jr., as well as multiple N.C. State athletics officials tied to their oversight rules, citing procedural reasons.
The lawsuit was filed in February in state court in a case that began with a federal lawsuit from a single athlete filed in 2022. That complaint alleged years of misconduct by Murphy, including improper touching of the genitals during massages and intrusive observation while collecting urine samples during drug testing.
Collins granted the motion seeking a dismissal from Murphy’s attorneys, ruling that the statute of limitations had expired in claims dating back as early as 2013.
Collins also dismissed claims against multiple athletics officials such as former athletic director Debbie Yow and current AD Boo Corrigan on jurisdictional grounds. His ruling stated any complaint should go through the North Carolina Industrial Commission — a state agency that deals with workplace matters with N.C. State as a public university — rather than civil court.
Jared Hammett, a Raleigh-based attorney representing Murphy, issued a statement to The Associated Press describing his client as “someone who dedicated his life to working with athletes” while referring to a “rush to judgment” that can impact “real people’s lives.”
“The truth is nothing happened but a man’s career being ruined for money,” Hammett said.
Durham-based attorney Kerry Sutton, who has represented players going back to the original case, said the athletes plan to appeal.
All but two of the 31 athletes are “John Doe” plaintiffs to protect anonymity, while two former men’s soccer players are named.
One is Benjamin Locke, who filed the original complaint in August 2022. The other is one of two athletes who filed their own federal lawsuits in February 2023 and April 2023. The AP typically doesn’t identify those who say they have been sexually assaulted or abused unless the person has spoken publicly about it, which Locke has done.
Sutton, who has represented plaintiffs in each lawsuit, filed to dismiss those pending Title IX lawsuits before moving the case to state-level jurisdiction in September 2025.
Murphy, at N.C. State from 2012-22, was among nine defendants originally named individually. Others were school officials accused of negligence in oversight roles, saying concerns about Murphy’s conduct reached senior levels of the athletic department but the school’s response was insufficient.
Sutton and co-counsel Robert O. Jenkins filed in April to dismiss former N.C. State chancellor Randy Woodson as a defendant.
“N.C. State does not condone sexual misconduct of any kind,” the school said in a statement Tuesday evening. “The health and safety of our students and student-athletes is paramount to the university and our athletic programs.
“We agree with the court’s analysis and the decision that the law supports dismissal of the plaintiffs’ claims in this case. We recognize the immense courage it takes for someone to come forward, and our hearts go out to any student or student-athlete who has been impacted by distressing experiences.”
