ATL Prosecutor Fani Willis Asks for Special Grand Jury in Trump Case

Atlanta’s top prosecutor is asking for reinforcements to help her get to the bottom of former president Donald Trump’s possibly criminal attempt to hijack Georgia’s presidential election results in 2020.

Fani Willis, Fulton County’s first Black woman district attorney, has asked Fulton County Superior Court’s chief judge to impanel a special grand jury with the power to compel witnesses to testify. Without a legalese explanation of how special grand juries work and why Willis needs one at this juncture, perhaps the Daily Beast’s headline put it best: Willis is ready to finally nail Trump for his infamous Jan. 2021 call asking Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to find enough votes to help him flip the state and is asking for the right tool to do it with.

From the Daily Beast

This move is a long time coming. Back in March 2021, Willis told The Daily Beast that her office already had two regular grand juries underway and was planning to ask jurors “in the very near future” to issue subpoenas demanding documents and recordings related to the Trump investigation. However, key witnesses repeatedly told The Daily Beast they did not receive subpoenas in the months that followed.

In fact, the key witness at the center of it all, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, called out the district attorney for taking so long.

“She’s just looking for excuses, because she’s slow-walking this investigation,” he told The Daily Beast in an exclusive interview on Thursday.

Raffensperger won’t have to wait long now, assuming the grand jury request is granted. Once he and others testify, it could mean Trump won’t have a long wait for a dose of justice, either.

While Willis does her work, Trump is still under the gun from multiple other investigations related to his businesses and his conduct in office. His call the Raffensperger happened just days before the Jan. 6 insurrection attempt, which is currently under investigation by a special House committee led by Rep. Bennie Thomspon of Mississippi. That investigation has already led to contempt charges against Trump ally Steve Bannon and could eventually lead to criminal liability for Trump himself.

We also learned this week that New York Attorney General Letitia James says she has the goods on Trump and his family potentially cooking the books inside the Trump Organization, and is making moves toward dragging them in to testify as well.

If you haven’t caught the pattern yet, Willis, Thompson and James are all Black, meaning yet again, guess who’s out here playing savior to American democracy when no one else will?