Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, whose office is prosecuting cases involving former President Donald Trump, rapper Young Thug and other high profile defendants, says she and members of her family have faced troubling threats.
“It’s very unfair to the other people and it’s a waste of time. It’s not going to stop what I’m doing,” Willis said over the weekend at Sean “Diddy” Combs’ Revolt World festival. “It’s been very troubling. I’ve become very private about my family because of the threats.”
Willis said she, her daughters, her father and even her ex-husband had their private information posted online. Some of those posts included racial slurs while others suggested violence.
Shortly after Trump and 18 codefendants were indicted, the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office announced it was investigating online threats made towards members of the grand jury that indicted Trump. The FBI announced that the agency was also aware of the threats and was cooperating with the sheriff in his investigation.
Revolt World, a 3-day event focused on all things hip-hop, was hosted by Combs’ multi-platform media company Revolt at Pangaea Studios.
The weekend-long event featured performances from artists Don Toliver, Moneybagg Yo, Juvenile and Mannie Fresh. Live tapings of Revolt television shows such as “Caresha Please,” “Assets Over Liabilities,” “Big Facts” and “The Jason Lee Show,” also took place. Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms was also in attendance during the conversation with Willis.
During the almost hour-long conversation, Willis discussed the use of lyrics as evidence in prosecuting Atlanta rapper Young Thug and his alleged associates, as well as rapper YFN Lucci.
“If you commit a crime and then you brag about it in a song, it’s a confession,” Willis said, noting that the lyrics need to be tied to an specific act to be used. “Because you put a beat behind it, does not make it any less than a confession and we are going to use it to convict you.”
Willis, who became district attorney after soundly defeating her former boss Paul Howard, said she plans to continue to use lyrics and social media posts for prosecution.
“As long as I sit here as the DA, if you brag about doing harm to people in my community and you put it on social media, I thank you for it and I think you have the right to that creative expression,” she said. “Please continue to use it.”
Willis also talked about a recent grant her office received to hire two Atlanta Police Department investigators to test a troubling backlog of more than 4,000 rape kits. Most of the victims involved were Black and brown women, she noted. Especially disturbing she said, was that testing has detected multiple serial rapists.
“It’s very sad when you look at those cases,” she said. “Not only are you bringing justice to this particular young lady but how many crimes could have been prevented, if the first young lady’s kit was tested?”
Willis also discussed her background during the event. She was raised by her father, a criminal defense attorney, and often went with him to court.
“He went to law school because of the fact he would get locked up so often. He talked about there would always be white lawyers there to represent him and he just found it very sad there weren’t any lawyers of color,” Willis said.
