MARIETTA, Ga. (AP) — Fani Willis challenged her critics in a defiant speech Thursday at a black church outside Atlanta, naming no names but apparently referring to Donald Trump and others who have attacked Georgia prosecutors’ investigation into the former president’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state.
Willis, the Fulton County district attorney, secured indictments against Trump and 18 of his allies last year. She faced months of criticism for her handling of the case – some of the attacks used racist or sexist stereotypes – and for appointing a special prosecutor who is no longer involved in the case and with whom she had a romantic relationship.
Speaking to a gathering of black clergy and community members, Willis said her friends often expressed concern for her.
“I’m living the experience of a black woman being attacked and oversexualized,” she said. “Look, I’m so tired of hearing these idiots call my name ‘Fanny’ to humiliate me because the name reminds them, like stupid schoolboys, of a woman’s butt, her butt.”
Trump has used that pronunciation to mock Willis – whose first name is pronounced FAH’-nee – notably during a rally in Ohio in March, when he said “Fanny, like your ass” when discussing her name. His campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday. Willis said her father, “a strong, educated, conscious black man,” gave her the name Fani Taifa, which means “wealthy people” in Swahili.
Willis’ outspokenness toward critics is nothing novel. But her out-of-court comments were seized upon by Trump’s defense attorneys and rebuked by the judge in the case. The case is largely on hold as an appeals court in Georgia considers whether Willis can remain in the case.
At the annual planning meeting of the AME Church in Georgia, Willis told the crowd gathered in the nave of a church in suburban Marietta that her friends often expressed concern about the attacks on her, but she ignored the ugliness.
“I’m here to tell you not to worry about insults against me. I promise you, I’m not worried,” she told the supportive audience, drawing thunderous approval throughout her 25-minute speech. “I’m too busy working 15-hour days and using every talent God has given me to fulfill my God-given destiny.”
Willis also said she is working demanding to hold accountable “anyone – anyone, there are no exceptions – who dares to come into our community and break the law.” That’s her standard answer when asked if she would prosecute a former president – that no one is above the law.
The August indictment accuses Trump and the others of participating in a wide-ranging plot to illegally overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia, which Trump narrowly lost to Democrat Joe Biden. Four defendants have pleaded guilty under agreements with prosecutors, but Trump and the others have pleaded not guilty.
Republican lawmakers in Atlanta and Washington have targeted her since the impeachment and launched investigations into her office. She had a particularly acrimonious exchange with the Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, who questioned her motives and demanded that she produce documents.
On Thursday, she again appeared to lash out at Jordan, saying, “We have politicians who spend no time pursuing their elected agendas. In fact, we have a clown in Washington, DC who was elected to make his community safer and pass laws. But he’s been sitting there for 17 years and hasn’t passed a single bill.”
Jordan joined Congress 17 years ago, in 2007. His office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Defenders for Trump and others have pointed to a speech Willis gave in January at a historic black church in Atlanta in which she said she had inappropriately brought race and God into the case, potentially biasing potential jurors against her clients. Those arguments are part of an ongoing effort to have Willis and her office removed from election interference charges or to have the case dismissed entirely.
The effort to remove Willis began with the revelation that she had a romantic relationship with attorney Nathan Wade, whom she hired as a special prosecutor on the case. Defense attorneys argued that Willis improperly profited from the case when Wade used his earnings to take her on vacation, creating a conflict of interest.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee ruled in March that there was no conflict of interest requiring Willis to be removed from the case, but said there was “an appearance of impropriety.” He allowed Willis to take the case as long as Wade did not, and the special prosecutor resigned hours later.
The Georgia Court of Appeals agreed to take the case last month, and Trump’s lawyers requested earlier this week that the court hear oral arguments. Willis’ team filed a motion to dismiss the appeal on Wednesday, arguing there was insufficient evidence to overturn the lower court’s order.
Proceedings against Trump and the other eight defendants on appeal have been stayed by the appeals court while it reviews the lower court’s ruling. That means the case against Trump, one of four criminal cases against the former president, almost certainly won’t go to trial before the general election in November, in which Trump is expected to be the Republican presidential nominee.
