Fulton County, Ga., District Attorney Fani Willis has called dozens of witnesses to testify before a special grand jury investigating efforts by Donald Trump and his allies to undo his 2020 election defeat, including a number of prominent pro-Trump figures who traveled, against their will, from other states. The Georgia inquiry has emerged as one of the most consequential legal threats to the former president. It is being shaped by Willis’s distinct and forceful personality and her conception of how a local prosecutor should do her job, the New York
Times reports. Her comfort in the public eye is in marked contrast to the low-key approach of Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Willis, 50, a Democrat, is the first Black woman to lead Georgia’s largest district attorney’s office. In her 19 years as a prosecutor, she has led more than 100 jury trials and hundreds of murder cases. Since she became chief prosecutor, her office’s conviction rate has stood at close to 90 percent. Her experience is the source of her confidence, which appears unshaken by the criticism the Trump case has brought. She uses the phrase “I don’t like a bully” often. After taking office in January, she had a quote from Malcolm X painted on the wall: “I’m for truth no matter who tells it. I’m for justice, no matter who it is for or against.” Willis' 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 A career in law, was never in doubt. She attended Howard University, then moved to Atlanta to attend Emory Law School. She settled down in the area, raising two girls as a working single parent and finding her calling in the prosecutor’s office. She took on murder cases for eight years straight.