Reporter, HuffPost
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has requested security assistance from the Federal Bureau of Investigations after former President Donald Trump made remarks targeting prosecutors investigating his actions at a rally this weekend.
In a letter from the Georgia prosecutor to the FBI’s Atlanta field office, Willis said that security concerns had been “escalated” by Trump’s “alarming” remarks at a Texas rally, first reported the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. She asked for a risk assessment of the county courthouse and other resources, like federal agents, as her office conducts its investigation.
An FBI spokesperson confirmed to HuffPost that its Atlanta office received a letter from Willis requesting security assistance, but declined further comment.
“We must work together to keep the public safe and ensure that we do not have a tragedy in Atlanta similar to what happened at the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021,” Willis wrote in the letter, per the AJC.
Willis is investigating Trump’s efforts to interfere in the presidential election results in Georgia. Part of her investigation focuses on Trump’s infamous Jan. 2, 2021, phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, in which the then-president urged the Republican to “find” the votes to beat Biden in the battleground state and overturn the election.
Last week, Willis was granted permission to seat a special grand jury in May to aid in her probe.
On Saturday, at a rally in Conroe, Texas, Trump called on his supporters to protest if prosecutors act against him, saying: “If these radical, vicious, racist prosecutors do anything wrong or illegal, I hope we are going to have in this country the biggest protests we have ever had in Washington, D.C., in New York, in Atlanta and elsewhere, because our country and our elections are corrupt.”
Trump also said that if he became president again, he would pardon those charged with attacking the Capitol in a violent, deadly riot by his supporters on Jan. 6, 2021.
On Jan. 6, an armed mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol as lawmakers were gathered to certify the 2020 presidential election, which Joe Biden won. Before the riot, Trump had incited the crowd at a rally by claiming the election had been stolen. Five people died in the mayhem and its immediate aftermath, including a U.S. Capitol Police officer.
In her letter to the FBI, Willis said that her office had “already made adjustments to accommodate security concerns … considering the communications we have received from persons unhappy with our commitment to fulfill our duties,” according to The New York Times.
Reporter, HuffPost
