Trump’s Next Foe May Be a Georgia District Attorney
Published Date: 2/12/2021
Source: Bloomberg Quicktake: Now
Donald Trump is on track for a likely acquittal in his impeachment trial, but he will still have to face a legal threat in Georgia from a prosecutor who’s only a month into her job. Fani Willis built her career trying homicide cases in Atlanta. She now finds herself doing what most Republican Senators were trying to avoid: weighing whether to punish Trump for his attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. The irony is apparent to Kimberly Wehle, a law professor at the University of Baltimore. “There must be some mechanism for accountability for Trump’s role in attempting to subvert the election results, and we are probably about to witness ‘jury nullification’ of the facts and the law by Senate Republicans,” Wehle said in an email. “Georgia prosecutors might wind up doing the critical work that the framers gave to the U.S. Congress.” Trump spokesman Jason Miller on Wednesday described the probe as a political stunt. “The timing here is not accidental given today’s impeachment trial. This is simply the Democrats’ latest attempt to score political points by continuing their witch hunt against President Trump, and everybody sees through it.” Willis didn’t respond to requests for comment. Willis is only a month into her job as district attorney in Fulton County after defeating Paul Howard -- a six-term incumbent and her former boss -- in the election for the top state prosecutor post in Atlanta. The 49-year-old mother of two, whose father was a Black Panther, trounced Howard in an August primary, winning more than 70% of the vote. She didn’t have a Republican challenger in the November election. She was a prosecutor in the district attorney’s office for 16 years before going into private practice in 2018 and then serving as the chief municipal judge in South Fulton. When Willis worked for Howard, she rose from line prosecutor to deputy district attorney for the complex trial division. Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2TwO8Gm Bloomberg Quicktake brings you live global news and original shows spanning business, technology, politics and culture. Make sense of the stories changing your business and your world. To watch complete coverage on Bloomberg Quicktake 24/7, visit http://www.bloomberg.com/qt/live, or watch on Apple TV, Roku, Samsung Smart TV, Fire TV and Android TV on the Bloomberg app. Have a story to tell? Fill out this survey for a chance to have it featured on Bloomberg Quicktake: https://cor.us/surveys/27AF30 Connect with us on… YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/Bloomberg Breaking News on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/BloombergQuickTakeNews Twitter: https://twitter.com/quicktake Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/quicktake Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/quicktake