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A Georgia district attorney considering election-related criminal charges against Donald Trump has asked the FBI for a risk assessment after the former president called the prosecutors investigating him "vicious, horrible people."
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who is working to determine whether Trump broke the law by pushing election officials to overturn President Joe Biden's 2020 victory, made the plea in a Sunday letter sent to J.C. Hacker, the special agent in charge of the FBI's Atlanta field office, The Washington Post reported.
Security concerns for prosecutors looking into Trump's actions "escalated" over the weekend after he took aim at them during a Texas rally. The probes are in multiple jurisdictions and are looking into such things as election interference, business fraud and the former president's role in the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol last year, according to the Associated Press.
Trump's Saturday rally "was broadcast and covered by national media outlets and shared widely on social media," Willis wrote in the letter. "His statements were undoubtedly watched by millions," she said.
During the rally, Trump said that if the "radical, vicious, racist prosecutors do anything wrong or illegal, I hope we are going to have in this country the biggest protest we have ever had in Washington, D.C, in New York, in Atlanta and elsewhere," the AP reported.
Willis wrote in the letter that Trump's comments were especially concerning because he also said during the event that if he is elected for a second presidential term in 2024, he would pardon people charged with criminal offenses related to last year's January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
"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 January 6, 2021," Willis wrote in the letter.
She asked the FBI for a risk assessment of the county courthouse and government center, as well as protective resources, "to include intelligence and federal agents," the AP reported.
She also said that her office had already taken measures in response to its security concerns "considering the communications we have received from persons unhappy with our commitment to fulfill our duties."
"My staff and I will not be influenced or intimidated by anyone as this investigation moves forward," she wrote.
Willis launched the investigation last year to determine whether Trump and his associates made any attempts to improperly influence the 2020 presidential election in Georgia, according to the AP.
She also asked in the letter that the resources be ready "well in advance" of May 2, when a special grand jury is scheduled to hear evidence related to the criminal investigation of Trump and others, the Post reported.
Newsweek reached out to the FBI's Atlanta field office and a spokesperson for Trump for comment but did not hear back before publication.
About the writer
Zoe Strozewski is a Newsweek reporter based in New Jersey. Her focus is reporting on U.S. and global politics. Zoe ... Read more