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The intensity of the threats against Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis allegedly compelled her to employ a body double clad in body armor to facilitate her departure from the courthouse, according to the authors of a new book.
While investigating former President Donald Trump’s alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia, the prosecutor received a large number of violent threats. Consequently, the former president, along with 18 co-defendants, was ultimately indicted on racketeering charges. Reporters Michael Isikoff and Daniel Klaidman claim in their book that Willis had to take “extreme measures” at certain points when going to court.
“In the days before the indictment, these threats are intensifying against her, and her security staff noticed an assassination threat on a deep web, dark web MAGA site,” said Klaidman, co-author of the new book “Find Me The Votes.”
“The best time to shoot her is when she leaves the building, so they set up an elaborate operation that involves a body double. After the midnight indictment is – she announces the indictment, which she – after the indictment, about 1 in the morning, she and her team go to the back office, where she changes out of her business attire into sweats, a T-shirt and a baseball cap. Meanwhile, someone on her staff, a woman about the same size, an investigator, changes into clothes that are – that resemble what Fani Willis was wearing – black business suit, a string of pearls and a black bob wig,” Klaidman said.
“The body double goes out the front of the courthouse, she is wearing a bulletproof vest,” Klaidman added. “Goes out, the front of the courthouse, gets in the official black SUVs. Meanwhile, Fani Willis and her team go out, slip out the back of the courthouse, get into civilian cars, and leave for an undisclosed location. Really, a dramatic moment.”
WATCH:
Willis has been laser-focused on getting Trump, but now it is she who is in the hot seat.
According to financial records obtained by the Daily Caller, the district attorney did not disclose an airline ticket that her alleged lover and Trump prosecutor, Nathan Wade, purchased for her in 2022.
“Willis did not disclose any gifts from Wade on her annual Income and Financial Disclosure Report for 2022, which requires the disclosure of any gift or favor above $100 from a ‘prohibited source’ — such as anyone ‘doing business with the county.’ Willis hired Wade as a special prosecutor in the election interference case against former President Donald Trump. Willis was recently accused of being Wade’s lover and inappropriately benefiting from lucrative contracts her office had given him,” The Daily Caller reported.
Bank statements obtained in a court filing show that Wade purchased a ticket to Miami for Willis for $477 in October 2022. On the same day as he purchased the airline ticket, he also made payments to Royal Caribbean Cruise Line in the amounts of $1,387 and $1,284.
“The bottom line is, that’s why we have these forms,” Richard Painter, former chief White House ethics lawyer during the George W. Bush administration, said to The Daily Caller News Foundation. He said that they are meant to disclose “exactly these kinds of conflicts of interest.”
“She needs to give an explanation as to why it wasn’t on the form,” he said.
“Wade’s contract with the district attorney’s office started on Nov. 1, 2021, and he filed to divorce his wife the next day. He has earned nearly $654,000 from the district attorney’s office since 2022, according to county data,” the report said.
“Filling out the disclosure form is required for all elected officials under the Fulton County Code of Ethics The form requires disclosure of ‘each gift or favor from a single prohibited source in the aggregate amount of $100.00 or more,’” it said.
Willis could be in a jam because she failed to disclose these gifts, former White House Counsel Courtney Kramer said to The Daily Caller.
“If she’s found to have intentionally lied on those forms, that’s not just an ethics violation,” she said.
She said that in addition to potential monetary payments, there could also be “potential for criminal liability.”
Atlanta-based criminal defense attorney and legal analyst Philip Holloway spoke to The Daily Caller News Foundation and said that these gifts add to a growing list of things Willis needs to explain.
The judge in the case she brought against Trump on election fraud charges has now ordered an investigation into her alleged misconduct, saying that she and her lead prosecutor engaged in an improper relationship and mishandled taxpayer dollars.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee said that Willis has until Feb. 2 to respond to the accusations.
