Fani Willis hates bullies

BY RICHARD FAUSSET, NYT EDITED BY UPW STAFF

Once again, the nation’s attention is riveted upon the Peach State. This time it’s the political quake surrounding District Attorney Fani Willis and the much-indicted former president.

Willis, 51, a Democrat, is the first Black woman to lead Georgia’s largest district attorney’s office in Fulton County. She is viewing as a possible criminal enterprise: Donald J. Trump and his allies who tried to overturn his narrow 2020 election loss in Georgia.

In recent weeks, Ms. Willis has called dozens of witnesses to testify before a special grand jury investigating efforts to undo Mr. Trump’s defeat, including a number of prominent pro-Trump figures who traveled, against their will, from other states. It was long arm of the law stuff, and it emphasized how her investigation, though playing out more than 600 miles from Washington, D.C., is no sideshow.

Rather, the Georgia inquiry has emerged as one of the most consequential legal threats to the former president, and it is already being shaped by Ms. Willis’s distinct and forceful personality and her conception of how a local prosecutor should do her job.

In her 19 years as a prosecutor, she has led more than 100 jury trials and handled hundreds of murder cases. Since she became chief prosecutor, her office’s conviction rate has stood at close to 90 percent, according to a spokesperson.

Her experience is the source of her confidence, which appears unshaken by the scrutiny — and criticism — the Trump case has brought.

In a heated email exchange in July over the terms of a grand jury appearance by Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, Ms. Willis called the governor’s lawyer, Brian McEvoy, “wrong and confused,” and “rude,” among other things.

“You have taken my kindness as weakness,” she wrote, adding: “Despite your disdain this investigation con- tinues and will not be derailed by anyone’s antics.”

The phrase “I don’t like a bully,” is one Ms. Willis deploys often. After taking office in January, she had a quote from Malcolm X painted on the wall as a sort of mission statement: “I’m for truth no matter who tells it. I’m for justice, no matter who it is for or against.”

Ms. Willis, as a child, split time between her divorced parents. Her father was a former Black Panther and criminal defense lawyer who practiced in the Washington,

D.C., area. He brought her to the courthouse often and put her to work as his file clerk starting in elementary school. A career in law, she said, was never in doubt. She attended Howard University, then moved to Atlanta to attend Emory Law School. She felt at home in Atlanta: As an undergraduate, she had attended Freaknik, the boisterous, mostly Black Atlanta street party that became a headache for city leaders and an inspiration for the