Fulton DA: Expect ‘historical decision this summer’ as Trump probe continues
The DA has been investigating Donald Trump’s campaign for almost a year into alleged interference in Georgia’s 2020 presidential election.
ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is planning to make a “historical decision” this summer following a letter she sent to Fulton County officials regarding an investigation into former president Donald Trump.
“That decision may displease people,” Willis said at an event Tuesday at Atlanta City Hall honoring volunteers of the Court Watch Program. “No matter what they feel about it, I support 100 percent, 1,000 percent, their right to protest. I do not support the ability to destroy property or to harm anyone, including laws enforcement, my staff and my family.”
Last year, Willis opened a criminal investigation “into attempts to influence the administration of the 2020 Georgia General Election.” Months later, a special grand jury with subpoena power was seated in May 2022. In court filings, she alleged “a multi-state, coordinated plan by the Trump campaign to influence the results of the November 2020 election in Georgia and elsewhere.”
In an April 24 letter, Willis warned Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat of “charging decisions” coming in the summer in connection with her investigation into the former president.
Trump has already become the nation’s first ex-president in history to face criminal charges. Earlier this year, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged the 45th president with alleged hush money payments made to porn actress Stephanie Clifford and former Playboy model Karen McDougal, whom he feared would go public with claims that they had extramarital sexual encounters with him.
A Manhattan grand jury has been probing Trump’s involvement in a $130,000 payment made in 2016 to the porn actor Stormy Daniels to keep her from going public about a sexual encounter she said she had with him years earlier.
Willis said the grand jury heard from 75 witnesses. Some of the more notable figures were Gov. Brian Kemp; Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr; Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger; former lieutenant governor Geoff Duncan; former White House official Mark Meadows; former U.S. House speaker and Georgia congressman Newt Gingrich; and Republican South Carolina U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham.
Trump has accused Willis of conducting a “strictly political witch hunt.” Trump, who announced his 2024 White House candidacy last November, also continues defending his now-famous phone call with Raffensperger on Jan. 2, 2021.
Last year, Raffensperger told a congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol that Trump’s claims of 2020 election fraud “were false.”
Raffensperger, along with Gabriel Sterling, the office’s chief operating officer, appeared before the Democrat-led House Select Committee’s nationally televised public hearings. Raffensperger told the committee that the 2020 election went “remarkably smooth,” with average ballot-casting wait times between two to three minutes statewide. “I felt we had a successful election,” he said.
Trump’s indictment adds to his list of firsts in American politics:
- First president to be impeached in the 21st century
- First president to be impeached twice in U.S. history, as well as the first to be acquitted twice;
- First president in the 21st century to be defeated in a re-election bid;
- First Republican president since George H.W. Bush in 1992 to be defeated in a re-election bid;
- First modern ex-president to lose a re-election bid and then launch a third bid.
- First ex-president in history to face criminal charges.
- First ex-president in history to face criminal charges while running a White House campaign.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing and has attacked both Bragg’s and Willis’ investigations. A conviction would not prevent Trump from running for or winning the presidency in 2024.
MORE TRUMP COVERAGE
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- How could Donald Trump’s Manhattan indictment impact his case in Georgia?
- Atlanta and New York: Two cities, two Donald Trump investigations
- Fulton DA given until May 1 to respond to Trump’s motion to quash report
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