The Georgia district attorney investigating former President Trump’s push to overturn the state’s 2020 election results says she has increased security due to receiving a number of racist threats, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.
District Attorney Fani Willis (D), who is Black, has increased her security at work and at home due to a slew of racist slurs and threats aimed at her over the phone and on social media.
Willis claims that threats have increased since Trump’s rally in Texas on Saturday, when he directly mentioned investigators in Fulton County, Ga., as well as in New York and on Capitol Hill.
“If these radical, vicious, racist prosecutors do anything wrong or illegal, I hope we are going to have in this country the biggest protests we have ever had in Washington, D.C., in New York, in Atlanta and elsewhere because our country and our elections are corrupt,” Trump said at the rally.
Willis requested additional security from the FBI after learning of the remarks.
“What I’ll tell you is that conversations have begun,” said Willis to the Journal-Constitution of her request. “And I believe that those partnerships are necessary to keep all of us here safe.”
Willis is leading a probe into a phone call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) in January 2021 in which he asked Raffensperger to “find” 11,780 votes to overturn President Biden’s victory in the state.
Willis and her team are also investigating other matters such as the resignation of former U.S. Attorney BJay Pak, a call between Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Raffensperger in November 2020 and claims made by Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani at a state Senate hearing.
The inquiry is examining violations including criminal solicitation to commit election fraud, intentional interference with the performance of election duties, conspiracy and racketeering.
“There’s a possibility that after two months we’ll have all the information we need to press forward,” Willis said of her team’s timeline. “There’s a possibility that after week one that some appellate issue will come and there’s a halt. But what I do think is within a year we will have all the information that we need.”
Willis will run for reelection in 2024.