‘We have an announcement’ | Fulton DA Willis launches fundraising website
A local grand jury is continuing to hear from witnesses and decide whether to bring charges against former President Donald Trump.
ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - While the nation awaits the results of her office’s more-than-two-year investigation into alleged attempts by former President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has launched a new fundraising website.
On Thursday, Willis sent out an email to her supporters. “Friend, we wanted you to know first that our new website is up and ready for you to share with your friends and family,” it said. “Sign up to volunteer, host an event, and continue to support the team! Thank you for your continued support to build a brighter future for Fulton County. With gratitude, Team Fani.”
Willis’ team launched the website as a Fulton County grand jury continues weighing whether to level charges or indictments against the nation’s 45th president.
Trump himself has charged Willis with using her investigation as a means of fundraising. Earlier this week in a speech to New Hampshire reporters, Trump launched a blistering attack on the first-term DA whom he has also accused in the past as conducting a witch hunt against him.
“I probably have another one,” Trump said Tuesday night of perhaps 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.”
Trump was apparently referring to Willis’ prosecution of rapper Young Thug and his alleged gang, YSL. Young Thug (real name Jeffery Williams) is facing a number of organized crime-related charges in Fulton County.
Last week, Trump’s 2024 campaign released an online ad featuring Willis, Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg and U.S. Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith, all three of whom have launched investigations into the former president. The ad has been airing on television in Washington, D.C., New York, Atlanta and on national cable.
In an email Willis sent to her staff on Wednesday, Willis addressed the former president’s accusations and the campaign ad.
“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 said. “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 her Wednesday 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.”
Earlier this year, Willis said she was planning to make a “historical decision” this summer regarding her investigation.
A special grand jury with subpoena power was seated in Fulton County May 2022. In court filings, Willis alleged “a multi-state, coordinated plan by the Trump campaign to influence the results of the November 2020 election in Georgia and elsewhere,” a contest that eventually saw Joe Biden become the first Democrat to win Georgia since Bill Clinton in 1992.
Trump had zeroed in on the county after he lost Georgia by a slim margin in the November 2020 general election. In phone calls to state election officials and in public comments, Trump made claims of widespread election fraud in Fulton.
Actions he took as he tried to overturn his election loss, including a phone call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, led Willis to open an ongoing investigation into whether Trump and others illegally meddled in the state’s election.
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