Fani Willis, the Fulton County District Attorney in Georgia who is prosecuting Donald Trump and 18 other allies for efforts to overturn the 2020 election, is facing a spate of racist abuse online after the former president attacked their opponents using the word “cheaters,” a thinly veiled play on the N-word.
Hours after Willis posted the allegations Monday night, Trump took to his Truth Social social media platform calling for all charges to be dropped and predicting he would be exonerated. He did not mention Willis by name, but accused prosecutors of going after the wrong criminal targets.
What to know about the 30 unindicted co-conspirators in the Georgia election investigation
“They never went after those who rigged the election,” Trump wrote. “They only went after the ones who fought to find the RIGGERS!”
Willis is African American. So are the two New York-based prosecutors who investigated Trump, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who indicted him in April for alleged hush money payments, and Letitia James, the state attorney general who is investigating. Trump’s financial records.
Trump’s allusion to the racial slur was immediately picked up by supporters on far-right platforms, including Gab and Patriots.win. The sites hosted hundreds of posts with “riggers” in their headlines in a derogatory context.
The word has also been attached to numerous social media posts by Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss. The two black Atlanta poll workers were falsely accused by some of the 19 defendants in the Fulton County case of committing voter fraud during the 2020 vote count, and the indictment accuses Trump allies of harassing them. .
Calls for violence have proliferated on far-right sites since the charges were made public Monday night. Several Gab publications reproduced images of nooses and gallows and called for Willis and the grand jury who delivered the charges to be hanged. And the posts on Patriots.win mixed puns with outright calls for violence.
Earlier this month, Willis wrote to Fulton County commissioners and judges warning them to remain vigilant against rising tensions ahead of the indictment’s release. She told them that she and her staff had been receiving racist voicemails and threats since she began her investigation into Trump’s attempt to subvert the election two years ago.
“I guess I’m sending this as a reminder to stay vigilant during the month of August and stay safe,” he said.
As the Willis investigation neared its climax, Trump stepped up his personal attacks on her via social media. He accused her of fiscal misconduct and even of being a racist herself.
Willis, who on Wednesday said he wanted to take the case to trial in March 2024, dismissed Trump’s claims as “disparaging and false.”
Trump has also unleashed a barrage of criticism against Jack Smith, the special counsel who earlier this month filed four federal charges against Trump for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Trump has referred to the prosecutor, who is white, as ” Deranged Jack Smith».
The judge in the federal case, Tanya Chutkan, warned him to be careful not to make inflammatory public comments about the proceedings, saying he would “take all necessary steps” to prevent witness intimidation or jury contamination.