Who is Fani Willis, the prosecutor taking on Donald Trump in Georgia? 4 days ago
By Madeline Halpert BBC News\
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has told US media she is carrying out the Trump probe as she would any other case
Fani Willis was preparing to start her new role as Fulton County District Attorney in Georgia when Donald Trump made a phone call to a top Republican in the state that would upend her work for the next several years. On 2 January 2021, the former president phoned Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and asked him to "find 11,780 votes", the number he needed to beat Joe Biden, who had won the state and the 2020 presidential election several weeks before.
Audio from the call was leaked to US media the next day, whipping up a massive political and legal storm on Ms Willis's first day in office.
"How soon I knew an investigation may be warranted was on day one," Ms Willis told USA Today in 2022. Two-and-a-half years after that phone call, on 14 August 2023, a grand jury in Fulton County voted to charge Mr Trump and 18 others with attempting to overturn the election result in the state.
Mr Trump's lawyers called the indictment "shocking and absurd".
Fani Willis is known by fellow Georgia lawyers and those who have worked with her as a dogged prosecutor capable of securing convictions in high-profile and complex cases.
"She had a reputation of always being prepared," said Melissa Redmon, who worked in the Fulton County District Attorney's office at the same time as Ms Willis. "Given the type of cases she prosecuted, that took a tremendous amount of dedication."
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