Who is Fani Willis? The Atlanta prosecutor overseeing Trump's Georgia election case

On Monday, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis stirred a storm in the United States after her office charged former US President Donald Trump and 18 other co-defendants in their alleged efforts to overturn Georgia’s 2020 Presidential election results. This was the fourth case the business tycoon-turned-politician was indicted in. While Trump called the whole ordeal "rigged", this indictment was a culmination of a two-year-long investigation led by Willis. 

Willis, who has a stellar record, has broken several glass ceilings throughout her career. She became Fulton County’s first female District Attorney just a day after the former US President telephoned Georgia’s GOP secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger and urged him to “find” around 11,000 votes to overturn the Georgia election result, one of the crucial swing states in the 2020 race to the White House. In his scathing attack on TruthSocial, the former reality TV star questioned Willis and stated why it took her and her team 2.5 years to reach a conclusion, calling the whole ordeal a “Witch hunt”. As Trump faces charges on 13 counts, here’s a look at the story of the woman who started the whole ordeal. 

Who is Fani Willis? 

Born in 1971 in California, Willis obtained her undergraduate degree from Howard University in 1992 and pursued her law degree from Emory School of Law in 1996. After serving as a lawyer for 24 years, Willis was elected to the office in 2020, replacing longtime incumbent and her former boss Paul Howard. Being a lawyer runs in her blood as her father was an advicate and Black Panther. 

Within days of being sworn in, Willis decided to pursue the investigation into the Former US President’s effort to overturn election results in Georgia. In light of this, Willis called for a special grand jury to assist the investigation into the case. For the span of several months, the grand jury heard dozens of witnesses ranging from Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) to Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp. Rudy Giuliani, who was eventually indicted alongside Trump. 

Not her first rodeo

Willis came to the limelight after she became the leading prosecutor in the  Atlanta Public Schools cheating scandal. In the seven-month-long trial from 2014 to 2015, Willis secured convictions for 11 of the 12 defendants and charged them with racketeering. In 2018, she opened a private practice focused on criminal defence and family law. “I was raised by a single father and so my heart is always with fathers – so in my family law practice I tend to represent men that are going through battles, you know, with children and child support and child custody,” Willis said in a July 2020 interview. Her journey to become the top-notch DA involved in a high-profile case made many wonder what else she has in store.