Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis wins reelection amid Trump election case
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Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis on Aug. 14, 2023, in Atlanta. Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Fani Willis, the district attorney for Fulton County, Georgia, overseeing former President Trump's election interference case, won her reelection bid.
The latest: Willis cruised to an easy victory in reliably blue Fulton County against Republican challenger Courtney Kramer, a former White House legal intern in the Trump administration.
Catch up quick: Willis' office indicted Trump and 18 co-defendants in August 2023 on a slate of felony charges related to attempts to flip Georgia's 2020 election results.
- Trump's lawyers have been fighting to remove Willis from the case, citing as a conflict of interest her relationship with a special prosecutor she'd hired to work on it.
- As a result, Trump's trial has been delayed repeatedly and won't occur until after the presidential inauguration in January at the earliest.
The big picture: Willis is using Georgia's racketeering, or RICO, laws to pursue her case against Trump — a strategy she has employed in other cases, and one that has its critics.
- Her office used the same RICO laws against rapper Young Thug and co-defendants in another sprawling and high-profile case that has claimed the record for Georgia's longest-ever trial.
- That trial is ongoing, though its chief co-defendant Young Thug, whose real name is Jeffery Williams, resolved his part in it last week, as did several other co-defendants.
What's next: A Georgia appeals court must decide whether to uphold a lower court's ruling that Willis could stay on Trump's case. Oral arguments for that begin Dec. 5.
What we're watching: Voters may be the only jury that matters here, Axios' Erin Doherty and Alex Thompson previously reported.
- The outcome of this presidential election could determine whether Trump stands trial in Willis' Fulton County case and his other pending case in Washington, D.C. — or whether both trials are held up indefinitely.