ATLANTA (AP) – The district attorney who investigates whether former President Donald Trump should face charges for trying to pressure the Georgia election chief to change the results of the presidential race in his favor has a reputation as a court veteran, not only as a prosecutor, but also as a defense lawyer and judge.
Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis, who swore an oath last month after winning a resounding victory in the 2020 elections over his former boss, entered the national spotlight on Wednesday when letters to senior state officials revealed that his office is investigating whether illegal attempts were made to influence the 2020 state elections. This includes the January 2 call in which Trump was recorded asking the Georgia Secretary of State to overturn his defeat.
Prosecuting Trump would likely be a decisive move for Willis – and fraught with risk, said Atlanta attorney Robert James, a former prosecutor in DeKalb’s neighboring county. Constituents in heavily democratic Atlanta would demand an aggressive process. The former Republican president would likely unleash an army of lawyers to defend him. And news coverage would examine every step or misstep.
“No one should be confused about the fact that you are going into a whirlwind,” said James. “If that is what she chooses to do based on the facts and evidence, as far as I know about her as a prosecutor, she is smart and strong enough to handle it.”
In his early weeks at work, Willis has faced criticism for trying to deliver two high-profile cases against police, including a fatal shot. But fellow lawyers who faced her in court say she is a skilled litigant who is not afraid of difficult cases.
“She’s a tough and tough defense lawyer,” said Atlanta defense attorney Page Pate. “I would never question your ethics. I would never question your diligence or intelligence. She’s a bulldog when she thinks she’s on the right side. “
Willis worked 17 years as an assistant district attorney for Paul Howard, who was Georgia’s first black prosecutor when he took office in 1997. Before challenging Howard for his job in 2020, Willis spent a short time as a criminal defense attorney and judge the municipal court.
Conducting an aggressive campaign in which he accused Howard of mismanagement, Willis defeated him in the second round of August for the Democratic nomination, winning almost 72% of the vote. With no Republicans on the ballot, Willis came to victory in November.
In his most visible case under Howard, Willis served as a prosecutor bringing charges against nearly three dozen Atlanta public school educators accused of a scam scandal. In April 2015, after a months-long heavy trial, a jury convicted 11 former educators for extortion for their role in a scheme to inflate students’ grades in standardized exams.
Pate, who defended one of the accused educators, said Howard had screwed up the case and should have lost. But Willis and his co-adviser, he said, “put the pieces together, worked day and night to make it what it was”.
The new district attorney was criticized for trying to get rid of two cases against the Atlanta police. One involves police officers accused of dragging two black college students out of a car during May protests over racial injustice. The other deals with two police officers accused of shooting on July 12, Rayshard Brooks, a black man killed while trying to escape from prison for drunk driving.
Last month, Willis asked Georgia’s attorney general, Chris Carr, to reassign the cases to an outside prosecutor, arguing that his predecessor had acted improperly in the cases, including politicizing them during his reelection campaign. Carr refused to transfer the cases.
Although some lawyers said Willis had good reason to refuse his position, his attempt outraged Brooks’ family members.
“You not only hurt me, but also everyone here who was counting on you to do the right thing,” Brooks’ widow Tomika Miller told a news conference last week. “You say you don’t run away from difficult cases. But, baby, you got away from this. “
Shean Williams, an Atlanta civil rights lawyer who represents the family of a man killed in a police shooting being sued by Willis’s office, said he understands the desire for such cases to be prosecuted by the local prosecutor. He applauded Willis for investigating Trump’s call, saying it made him hopeful that she would hold police officers and others in charge accountable.
It is uncertain whether Willis will pursue charges against Trump or anyone else in connection with the election.
Trump’s senior adviser Jason Miller has already denounced the investigation, saying it is the continuation of a Democrats “witch hunt” against the former president.
While Willis’ letters to state officials do not target Trump, prosecutor spokesman Jeff DiSantis confirmed that, among other things, investigators are investigating the phone call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
Raffensperger, a fellow Republican, can be heard at the summons rejecting Trump’s repeated calls for him to change the state’s certified results for the presidential election, which President Joe Biden won by about 12,000 votes.
“In most cases, you would have a sort of he-said, she-said case, where one person is saying that another party said something,” said Cathy Cox, dean of Mercer University law school and former secretary of State of Georgia. “But you have a tape with Trump’s real words. There is no dispute about what he said. “
Regardless, in cases against celebrities and public officials like Trump, it can be difficult to even get the indictment of a grand jury that allows the case to go to trial, said James, the former DeKalb County prosecutor. That’s because citizens charged with hearing such cases often find it difficult to be impartial about famous defendants, he said.
“Ultimately, as a prosecutor, your job is to process cases without fear, favor or affection,” said James. “You look at the law, look at the facts and compare the two.”
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Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia. The Associated Press writer Sudhin Thanawala contributed from Atlanta.