Trump hurls attacks at Fulton County district attorney ahead of anticipated indictment – Atlanta News First
ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) – Under increasing threat of a fourth criminal indictment that could come any day out of Fulton County, former president Donald Trump lashed out at District Attorney Fani Willis with bizarre and baseless accusations.
On stage at a campaign rally in Windham, New Hampshire on Tuesday, Trump accused Willis of having an affair with a defendant she’s currently prosecuting. Her case against the alleged Atlanta-based gang YSL, or Young Slime Life, is already the longest in state history and is still ongoing in Fulton County.
“I probably have another one,” Trump said of the pending Fulton County indictment. “They say there’s a young woman, a young racist in Atlanta. And they say, I guess they say, she was after a certain gang and she ended up having an affair with the head of the gang or a gang member. And this is a person that wants to indict me, she’s got a lot of problems. But she wants to indict me to try to run for some other office.”
There’s been no evidence, or even any prior suggestion that Willis was intimately involved with any defendants in the YSL trial.
It’s far from the first time Trump has attacked a prosecutor seeking charges against him. He’s repeatedly lambasted Special Council Jack Smith, the man pursuing a federal case against the former president out of Washington, D.C.
He’s also levied attacks against Alvin Bragg and Leticia James, the Manhattan district attorney and New York attorney general pursuing a state case against him over alleged financial crimes.
Last week, the Trump campaign began running advertisements featuring Willis, Smith, Bragg and James referring to the four as “unscrupulous government bureaucrats” controlled by the administration of President Joe Biden.
In an email Willis sent to her staff on Wednesday, she addressed the former president’s accusations and the campaign ad, adding the ad has “derogatory and false information.”
“Many of you are quite kind to me, very protective, and will become very defensive if someone attempts to attack me, the office, or your colleagues,” the email reads. “You may not comment in any way on the ad or any of the negativity that may be expressed against me, your colleagues, this office in coming days, weeks or months.”
“We have a job to do. In this office, we prosecute based on the facts and the law. The law is non-partisan. You should feel no need to defend me.”
In the email, Willis reminded her staff that her office prosecutes “based on the facts and the law” and “this is business, it will never be personal.”
Trump’s attorneys have hinted at a free speech defense in his federal case involving attempts to overturn the 2020 election results. Those charges could very closely mirror those that are expected to come out of Fulton County.
“He’s kind of toeing a thin line and kind of putting himself in the lion’s den with this,” said Atlanta attorney J. Edward Shipp. “You don’t want to aggravate the people who are prosecuting you.”
Shipp said while Trump is within his legal rights to make the statements, there could be some consequences.
“He’s probably going to end up with a protective order not to speak or disparage the prosecutors, or not to intimidate the prosecutors and the witnesses,” said Shipp.
Willis has stated that any indictments out of Fulton County, where Trump and some Georgia allies are being investigated for their alleged efforts to overturn the state’s 2020 election results, could come as early as this week or next.
Shipp, who worked as a defense attorney for years, said the former president might be best served with silence.
“The last thing I would want any of my clients to do is to get in a public space and say, ‘hey, the prosecutor is sleeping with this person or they’re doing this or whatever,’” he said. “Especially when I know I have to face that person the following week or anytime in the future.”
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