Fulton County district attorney Fani T. Willis is poised to have a big year. On the one hand, she is prosecuting Young Thug/YSL in a RICO case that’s gearing up to go to trial. On the other hand, she is leading the investigation into former President Trump and his allies’ efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia. That investigation is wrapping up and there is a possibility Trump will face criminal charges.
To the left leaning Americans, Willis is simultaneously a hero for going after Trump in the way Merrick Garland refuses to. She’s also a villain for going after a black artist and using lyrics in court. Depending on the outcomes of both trials, the ambitious attonery is likely to gain a national profile in the coming months—if she hasn’t already.
Besides the juxtaposition of those two high-profile cases, Willis’ life story is fascinating. She’s a 50-year-old single mother. A Democract, she’s the first Black woman to lead Fulton County’s DA office, where she has a 90% conviction rate. She was destined for success, her father was a lawyer. He was also a Black Panther. Despite her revolutionary bonafides, she doesn’t have the profile of a “progressive prosecutor” like San Francisco’s former DA’s Chesa Boudin. She’s been hard to pin down precisely because she’s willing to go after the likes of Young Thug.
In an interview with the New York Times, she positioned herself in-between the “lock’em up” “LaW & oRdEr” crowd and the prison abolutionists of Twitter.
“You have all these extreme people who think that there should not be prisons. They’re crazy,” said Willis to the New York Times. “There are people out here who will take your life and think nothing of it — go have lunch, like, literally think zero about taking your life — and they have to be removed from society. But then you also have these other crazy people that think everyone should go to jail. That’s also kind of — that’s crazy, right?”
Willis’ is right, both positions are too extreme. That quote highlights the tightrope that she’s walking with her two high profile cases.
Millions of Americans are fed up with Trump’s endless crime spree. Even more Americans bitterly denounce the criminal elite—who are typically right wing but certainly not exclusively—who always skate past any consequences for their well documented malfeasance. They’re looking for justice.
At the same time, crime in Atlanta has gone up in recent years. If what Willis’ office is claiming about YSL (and Drug Rich) is true—that they were a violent street gang responsible for several murders— of course people want them off the streets. Even the most convincing abolutionists will have a hard time convincing you it’s totally fine to live next door to a murderer. The families of the dead most likely want to see the killers behind bars. They’re just looking for justice.
That logic might not fly with YSL fans, who are likely to post “Free Slime” because they like Young Thug’s music. I’ve never sure if those fans are actually confront the idea that Thug might be guilty. But as I’ve argued when Gunna took his plea, the DA has their sights set on Thug. There’s a good chance he’ll lose in court and face a long prison sentence. Meanwhile, Drug Rich is a much less acclaimed group than YSL, so their case won’t get the same attention—which means it’s even more likely to go the DA’s way.
If Willis succeeds in getting YSL and Drug Rich—especially if she uses rap lyrics in court as she seems very open to doing—it might help her locally but it will certainly cost her culturally. She find herself the subject of a lyric herself. The song that comes to mind is from another Atlanta rap group, Goodie Mobb, and their track “Soul Food.” On the song, T-Mo goes after the black man and white woman who prosecuted the OJ Simpson’s murder case: “Fuck Chris Darden, fuck Marcia Clark.”
Unlike the OJ trial era, most people these days are getting their news via social media. Outlets like DJ Akademiks have already tried to spin dissing Willis as a way to twarth off Lil Baby. I fully expect accounts similar to his will villify Willis if she succeeds in prosecuting Thug, a beloved icon of Atlanta trap.
The real question is whether or not Willis will succeed in bringing Trump to justice? Initally, she floated the idea of using the RICO against him. There’s also the possibility of her hitting him with a racketeering charge. Even if she can’t get him, she might get someone like Rudy Giuliani, Senator Lindsey Graham (you know Trump is just itching to throw him under the bus), or even David Shafer, the head of the Georgia Republican Party.
But the answer is, no, she’s probably not going to get Trump. He’s the Teflon Don for a reason; his corruption knows no bounds whether that means cheating at an election, having a Chinese bank account while president, or cheating at his own golf tournament. He never faces any real consequences and he will never see the inside of a jail cell. It’s foolish to think otherwise.
There are already signs Willis won’t get Trump. For one, he wasn’t subpoenaed or asked to come in by the grand jury. The criminal elite of the court will protect their own: They already barred Willis from going after a Trump ally. Meanwhile, his intimidation tactics are already at work: Willis claims she has had her staffers fitted for bullet-proof vests.
Willis indictments in the election case are not expected until May of this year. It’s possible the YSL will have wrapped up by then. Whatever dirt people will throw on her name post-YSL will likely bloom into flowers if she at least manages to get another high profile target in the Trump case. Whatever happens next, don’t expect the first term DA to stay in that office for too long.