Trump Speech Demanding Protests Raises Security Concerns For Fulton County DA

ATLANTA, GA — Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis on Sunday penned a letter to the FBI asking for protective aid following a Donald Trump speech this weekend demanding protests of prosecution against him.

At a televised rally Saturday night in Conroe, Texas, Trump doubled down on the lie that his loss to Joe Biden was the result of widespread fraud. Trump made an ominous request to the crowd of supporters as he referred to the various investigations he faces of his political and business dealings.

"If these radical, vicious, racist prosecutors do anything wrong or illegal, I hope we are going to have in this country the biggest protests we have ever had in Washington, D.C., in New York, in Atlanta and elsewhere because our country and our elections are corrupt,” he said.

In her letter Sunday to the FBI, Willis said Trump’s words raised security concerns, and she requested federal assistance to prevent an incident such as what happened at the U.S. Capitol a year ago.

“I am asking that you immediately conduct a risk assessment of the Fulton County Courthouse and Government Center and that you provide protective resources to include intelligence and federal agents,” Willis wrote in the letter obtained by 11 Alive investigative reporter Brendan Keefe. “We must work together to keep the public safe and ensure that we do not have a tragedy in Atlanta similar to what happened at the United States Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.”

On that day — before hundreds of people left his rally in the Ellipse and stormed the U.S. Capitol, leading to several deaths and dozens of injuries — Trump told his supporters there to march to the Capitol “because you'll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong. We have come to demand that Congress do the right thing and only count the electors who have been lawfully slated, lawfully slated.”

Willis last year opened an investigation into any potential attempts to improperly influence the 2020 general election in Georgia by Trump and his associates — in particular, Trump’s phone call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger urging him to “find 11,780 votes” to overturn Biden’s win in the state in the 2020 presidential election.

She pointed to plans to impanel a special purpose grand jury by May 2 to further that investigation.

“My staff and I will not be influenced or intimidated by anyone as this investigation moves forward,” she wrote.

— The Associated Press contributed to this report.