ATLANTA (AP) – The prosecutor investigating whether former President Donald Trump should be indicted for attempting to pressure the head of Georgia elections to turn the results of the presidential race in his favor has a reputation as a tough veteran in the courtroom, not only as a prosecutor, but also as a lawyer and judge.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, sworn in last month after winning a resounding election victory over her former boss in 2020, came into the national spotlight on Wednesday when letters to senior government officials revealed her office is investigating whether illegal attempts have been made to influence the 2020 elections. That includes the Jan. 2 phone conversation recording Trump asking the Georgia Secretary of State to undo his defeat.
Prosecuting Trump would likely prove a career-defining move for Willis – and one fraught with risk, said Atlanta attorney Robert James, a former district attorney in neighboring DeKalb County. The voters in highly democratic Atlanta would demand aggressive prosecution. The Republican ex-president would likely unleash an army of lawyers to defend him. And the coverage would scrutinize every step or misstep.
“No one should get confused about getting into a whirlwind,” James said. “If this is what she decides to do based on the facts and evidence of what I know about her as a prosecutor, then she is smart enough and strong enough to deal with it.”
In her first weeks at work, Willis was criticized for attempting to hand over two high-profile cases against police officers, including a fatal shooting. But fellow attorneys who have seen her in court say she is a capable litigation attorney who is not afraid of difficult cases.
“She’s a tough, tough litigation attorney,” said Atlanta attorney Page Pate. ‘I would never question her ethics. I would never question her zeal or intelligence. She’s a bulldog if she thinks she’s on the right side. “
Willis worked for 17 years as an assistant district attorney under Paul Howard, who was Georgia’s first Black DA when he took office in 1997. Before challenging Howard for his job in 2020, Willis spent brief periods as a criminal defense attorney and municipal judge.
While running an aggressive campaign accusing Howard of mismanagement, Willis defeated him in a second election in August for the Democratic nomination, winning nearly 72% of the vote. With no Republican on the ballot box, Willis raced to victory in November.
In her most controversial case under Howard, Willis served as the lead prosecutor who brought charges against nearly three dozen Atlanta public school teachers charged with a cheating scandal. In April 2015, after an impractical trial that lasted months, a jury convicted 11 former teachers of extortion for their role in a plan to increase student scores on standardized exams.
Pate, defending one of the accused educators, said Howard screwed up the case and should have lost. But Willis and her co-counsel, he said, “put that thing together, worked day and night to make it what it was.”
The new district attorney has come under fire for attempting to discharge a few cases against the Atlanta police. One of these concerns officers accused of dragging two black students from a car during protests over racial injustice in May. The other deals with two officers charged with the death of Rayshard Brooks on July 12, a black man who was killed trying to flee from being arrested for drunk driving.
Willis last month asked Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr to reassign the cases to an outside prosecutor, arguing that her predecessor had acted inappropriately in the cases, including politicizing them during his reelection campaign. Carr refused to transfer the cases.
While some attorneys said Willis had good reason to recant her office, her attempt aroused members of Brooks’ family.
“Not only did you hurt me, but you hurt everyone here who thought you would do the right thing,” Tomika Miller, Brooks’ widow, said at a news conference last week. ‘You say you don’t run from difficult cases. But baby, you walked out of here. “
Shean Williams, an Atlanta civil rights attorney who represents the family of a man who was killed in another police shooting that is being prosecuted by Willis’s office, said he understands the desire for such cases to be prosecuted by the local district attorney . He applauded Willis for investigating Trump’s call, saying he hoped she would keep police officers and others in power.
It is uncertain whether Willis will press charges against Trump or anyone else in connection with the election.
Senior Trump adviser Jason Miller has already denounced the investigation, saying it is a continuation of a “witch hunt” by Democrats against the former president.
While Willis’ letters to state officials do not target Trump, prosecutor spokesman Jeff DiSantis confirmed that investigators, among other things, are investigating the phone conversation between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
Raffensperger, a fellow Republican, can be heard on the call, rejecting Trump’s repeated calls to him to change the certified results of the presidential election, which President Joe Biden won by about 12,000 votes.
“In most cases, you’d have some sort of he-said, she-said case where one person claims another party said something,” said Cathy Cox, dean of the law school at Mercer University and a former Georgia secretary of state. ‘But you have a connection with the very words of Trump. There is no question about what he said. “
Regardless, in cases against celebrities and government officials like Trump, even obtaining a grand jury indictment that could lead a case to a court of law can be difficult, said James, the former DeKalb County prosecutor. That’s because citizens who listen to such matters often find it difficult to be impartial towards famous defendants, he said.
“Ultimately, as a prosecutor, your job is to pursue cases without fear, favor or affection,” said James. “You look at the law, you look at the facts, and you compare the two.”
Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia. Associated Press writer Sudhin Thanawala contributed from Atlanta.