ATLANTA — The Fulton County District Attorney’s Office said the federal court sentencing last week of a man who made menacing phone calls to District Attorney Fani Willis and Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat is just one of several factors leading Willis to enact special security precautions for her staff this election week.
“Has your office received recent threats in connection with the election?” Channel 2 investigative reporter Mark Winne asked Willis.
“My office has received recent threats. I never know what causes them,” Willis said.
Willis said she’s electing to take stringent security precautions in the three days following Election Day Tuesday for her staff, some of whom are prosecuting a controversial election interference case involving the 2020 presidential election.
“Some people are very angry about the upcoming election. Not only my own election, but the presidential election, and so we’ll just say that tensions are very high,” Willis said.
She told Winne that her staff gets no vote on some of the safeguards.
An email she says went to everyone who works for the District Attorney’s Office said: “If you are not in court this Wednesday – Friday, it is a violation for you to come into the office. For safety reasons, we want to keep our footprint as small as possible. We will have an investigator walking all our work sites hourly to make sure you are not here.”
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“My lawyers and investigators and legal assistants, they’re very dedicated to the work and so sometimes they want to come in just to make sure there prepared for court,” Willis said.
The email, sent out Monday also said: “Tomorrow no one who is coming to work at the FCDA’s office shall wear any office paraphernalia and you should keep your Fulton County DA’s office identification concealed.”
“Those members of my staff that do come in are mainly going to be investigators that are armed police officers, so they’ll be here to offer extra support around the courthouse,” Willis said.
The email said: “This week we will be a 5% in-person office for the last three days of the work week.”
That means about 95% of the staff is to work remotely Wednesday through Friday.
“I need the investigators that are here escorting those that are still having trials to the courtroom back to their cars. We’re going to take extra steps to keep that staff that absolutely has to be here safe,” Willis said.
Willis suggests her office will also come down hard on any lawbreakers interfering with the current election in her jurisdiction, regardless of party.
“If someone should threaten a poll worker, that’s gonna be a problem. And they’re gonna be indicted for threatening a poll worker. If someone should interfere with someone going to vote, that’s going to be a problem,” Willis said.
A DA’s office spokesman told Winne that he knows of no threat specifically tied to the election but there have been a lot of recent threats in general.
He said staff members who have court Wednesday through Friday are required to provide detailed information to two investigative supervisors, as well as another step that Willis does not want to be made public.
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