Georgia DA Fani Willis is known as a tough prosecutor, frequently employing RICO to go after big game gangs in Fulton County (where she has been District Attorney since 2021) and including in her prosecutorial sweeps some famous hip-hop stars.
Willis’s most famous prosecution prey is, of course, former President Donald Trump, whose alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia have been the subject of her office’s scrutiny since she came into office. It is widely expected, though not a foregone conclusion, that Trump will be indicted on charges in Georgia before the month is out.
For starters, my colleague @ajccourts put together this cheat sheet on where we've been and what's on the horizon https://t.co/iIBXfNzK6r
— Tamar Hallerman (@TamarHallerman) August 13, 2023
Trump himself has taken note of Willis and her Georgia case — even as he faces federal charges that seem more severe in United States v. Donald J. Trump — and Trump has attacked Willis on social media, calling her “racist” and floating rumors about her personal life.
Willis’s case might be seen as second-tier in comparison with the charges brought by the DOJ, but there are parts of it that present potentially more problems for Trump than the federal cases might.
One problem Trump faces in a Willis prosecution is notably that a conviction in Georgia is not one a future Republican President could pardon Trump for. (A Trump pardon, if there are Trump convictions, is seen as likely by any Republican President and a virtual certainty if Trump himself is elected.)
Trump is tying to paint Willis as a biased left-leaning persecutor, soft on crime, just as he sought to portray Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg when Bragg brought charges against the former President. But Willis’s record — especially her pursuit of gang-related crimes — pushes back against the characterization.
The New York Times reported in a story featuring Willis that:
In particular, there is her unsparing deployment of RICO indictments, even as critics question their breadth. Last year’s 56-count indictment of Young Thug’s YSL group, for example — the name signifying both a record label and, per Willis’s office, an associated criminal organization — included charges of murder and armed robbery but also cited social-media posts, minor offenses like dealing marijuana and, in what has drawn the most pushback, song lyrics as examples of furthering the conspiracy.
New York Times
Another perceived hole in the attempt to portray Willis as soft on crime is that she ran as District Attorney with the reported backing of the Atlanta chapter of the International Brotherhood of Police Officers, which included financial support from police for her campaign. Soft on crime prosecutors don’t often win the backing of cops, who don’t like when the bad guys they arrest are quickly back out on the street.
Running against six-term incumbent DA Paul Howard, Willis was considered so conservative she was accused of being a “Republican posing as a Democrat.”
In response to Trump’s online insults and innuendo, Willis has instructed her staff not to reply in any way. “We have no personal feelings against those we investigate or prosecute and we should not express any,” Willis reportedly instructed in an email to her staff. “This is business, it will never be personal.”
When she first won election, Willis told doubters and supporters the same thing: “The best thing about me is I am who I say I am,” she said. “The worst thing about me is I am who I say I am.”
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