Fulton County DA Fani Willis warns staff not to respond to ‘derogatory’ Trump ad

The Fulton County district attorney investigating former President Trump’s efforts to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results is warning members of her office about a “derogatory and false” ad being run this week by the Trump campaign.

A Trump aide confirmed to The Hill that the campaign is planning to run an ad targeting Fani Willis that will air in Atlanta, Washington, D.C., New York City and elsewhere around the country.

The one-minute ad attacks Willis, as well as New York Attorney General Letitia James, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and federal special prosecutor Jack Smith, dubbing them “The Fraud Squad.”

The ad derides Bragg as a “radical liberal,” calls James a “socialist” and attacks Willis as “incompetent,” “corrupt” and “dishonest,” echoing Trump’s previous allegation of an improper relationship with a gang member.

Willis, the Fulton County district attorney, wrote in a memo obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that her staff should not respond to the incoming attacks.

“Many of you are quite kind to me, very protective, and will become very defensive if someone attempts to attack me, the office or your colleagues,” she said. “You may not comment in any way on the ad or any of the negativity that may be expressed against me, your colleagues, this office in coming days, weeks or months. We have no personal feelings against those we investigate or prosecute and we should not express any. This is business, it will never be personal.”

“In this office, we prosecute based on the facts and the law,” she added. “The law is non-partisan. You should feel no need to defend me.”

Willis, a Democrat, is expected to present her case to a grand jury next week, according to multiple reports, a sign she is preparing to bring charges against Trump and his allies over their efforts to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results.

The investigation has been focused on Trump’s pressure campaign against state officials, as well as a scheme to create a slate of alternate electors who would back Trump at the Electoral College over President Biden, who carried the state by roughly 12,000 votes.

Trump’s attacks against Willis are in line with his approach to other investigations into his conduct. 

He has regularly berated Bragg, who brought charges against Trump over an alleged hush money scheme to cover up an affair, and he has repeatedly called Smith “deranged” as the Justice Department special counsel leads two federal cases against him.

Updated at 4:32 p.m. ET.