TRUE GRIT
FEARLESS SISTERS
Georgia's Fani Willis and New York's Letitia James Make the Case Against Donald Trump
By Stephen G. Hall, PhD The 2020 presidential electoral cycle was one of the most contentious in American history. Until Donald J. Trump, never had a sitting president refused to acknowledge the lawful election of his successor. The lack of acknowledgment is one thing, but to take action to contravene the electoral process and certification at the state and federal level is quite another. Determined to hold on to the reins of power, former President Trump and his acolytes exerted pressure on the secretaries of state in mostly Republican states to either declare large numbers of absentee ballots as fraudulent or to refuse to certify the results. When these efforts failed in battleground states, Trump supporters, encouraged by a raucous speech by Trump at Washington, D.C.’s Ellipse park, stormed the United States Capitol on January 6 to prevent the certification of the votes from states by the U.S. Congress. Although the violent assault on the Capitol by Trump supporters was the icing on the cake in the electoral drama, the run-up to these unprecedented events has proven equally fascinating. This was particularly the case in battleground states such as Arizona and Georgia. Georgia proved particularly troublesome for Trump because the state has been reliably Republican in past electoral cycles. The Republican loss of not only the presidential race but the subsequent election of two Democratic senators proved damaging to Republican morale.
BAVUAL
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Efforts by Trump and his campaign officials to reportedly sway the election through direct and indirect pressure on election officials, harassment of officials, tampering with the process, and recruiting fake electors deserve investigation. Although investigating these shenanigans is proving to be a daunting task, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is on the case. Willis is a graduate of Howard University and the Emory University School of Law. Having served as a prosecutor for 16 years in the Fulton County prosecutor’s office, she became district attorney on Jan. 1, 2021, and is the first woman elected to the position. Willis is pursuing several lines of investigation that revolve around four issues. She is looking at potential criminal wrongdoing in calls Trump and his allies made to Georgia officials including false statements made to lawmakers, harassment of election officials, tampering with election systems in one county in southern Georgia, and attempting to send false electors to Washington, D.C. Willis opened a criminal investigation immediately following the highly publicized calls between Donald Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. Reportedly, Trump and his allies also put pressure on the state’s attorney general and governor to find votes to overturn President Joe Biden’s win. Willis is investigating this conduct under a Georgia law that prohibits the solicitation of electoral fraud. Willis is also investigating a series of statements made by Trump
FALL 2022
