As Donald Trump waits to learn whether he will be facing a fourth indictment in Georgia’s 2020 election-interference probe (all signs point to yes), he has decided to go after the woman at the helm of the investigation: Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis.
On Sunday, Trump’s campaign began running an ad in the state criticizing Willis, attempting to portray her as a corrupt prosecutor who is only going after the former president on President Biden’s orders. NBC News reports that the ad is slated to run in Atlanta from Wednesday through Sunday. There is speculation that charges in Willis’s inquiry will be revealed as soon as next week.
The ad, entitled “The Fraud Squad,” goes after Willis personally, claiming that she is guilty of prosecutorial misconduct and alleging that she had an affair with a gang member she was prosecuting. The one-minute-long video calls Willis “Biden’s newest lackey,” lumping her in with other prosecutors who have sought charges against Trump, including special counsel Jack Smith and Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution obtained an email Willis sent to her staff asking them not to respond publicly to the ad, writing that the claims made in the video were “derogatory and false.”
“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 the coming days, weeks or months,” she said. “We have no personal feelings against those we investigate or prosecute and we should not express any.”
Trump has always attacked the people who have investigated him for wrongdoing, and the pattern is continuing. In the days since Smith indicted the former president in his classified-documents and January 6 inquiries, Trump has called the veteran prosecutor “deranged.” In a social-media post, he wrote that Bragg was a “degenerate psychopath.”
Most recently, Trump has aimed his ire at U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan, the Obama appointee who has been assigned to the Justice Department’s election-fraud case. On Truth Social, he claimed her selection was unfair, saying that Chutkan was Smith’s “number one draft pick.” CNN reported that Chutkan has received an enhanced security detail due to her presiding over the case.
