https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/30/politics/fulton-county-da-fbi-letter/

The Fulton County, Georgia, district attorney is asking for the FBI’s help in providing security for buildings and staff one day after former President Donald Trump called prosecutors investigating him “racists” and said his supporters should hold “the biggest protests we have ever had” in cities like Atlanta if the prosecutors “do anything wrong or illegal.”

DA Fani Willis and her office are investigating Trump for his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia. A special grand jury will be seated as part of that investigation on May 2.

 

At a rally in Conroe, Texas, Saturday night, Trump, without naming them, railed against Willis plus New York Attorney General Letitia James and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Jr., who are investigating his business empire, calling them “racists.” The three are Black. Trump provided no evidence of racial discrimination.

 

“These prosecutors are vicious, horrible people. They’re racists and they’re very sick — they’re mentally sick,” he said. “They’re going after me without any protection of my rights from the Supreme Court or most other courts. In reality, they’re not after me, they’re after you.”

 

In a letter to J.C. Hacker, FBI special agent in charge of the Atlanta field office, Willis asked for a risk assessment of buildings surrounding her office and the courthouse where the grand jury will sit. She also asked for FBI agents to provide security, saying “security concerns were escalated this weekend” by Trump’s rhetoric. Willis said her office had already received communications from people unhappy with the investigation before Trump’s rally.

 

“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 said in the letter, obtained by CNN. “It is imperative that these resources are in place well in advance of the convening of the Special Purpose Grand Jury.”

 

CNN has reached out to the FBI in Atlanta for comment.

 

Willis, a Democrat, compared potential violence associated with her investigation to the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol. Trump said Saturday night that he would consider pardoning those who were charged in connection with the deadly attack if he wins the White House again. Several high-profile Republicans, including New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, quickly dismissed Trump’s suggestion.

 

“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 said.

The State Of Georgia and The FBI should send the bill for heightened security to TFG as his little pity party and suggestion of mass protests in Atlanta will cost someone somewhere some big bucks! https://t.co/en05dwcWqb

— Joel Denver (@jdenver) January 31, 2022

A federal judge rejected a plea agreement Monday that would have averted a hate crimes trial for the man convicted of murdering Ahmaud Arbery.

 

Travis McMichael is shown during the sentencing of he and his father Greg McMichael and neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan in the Glynn County Courthouse in Brunswick, Ga. | Stephen B. Morton via AP Photo

By ASSOCIATED PRESS

01/31/2022 04:16 PM EST

BRUNSWICK, Ga. — A federal judge rejected a plea agreement Monday that would have averted a hate crimes trial for the man convicted of murdering Ahmaud Arbery.

Arbery’s parents denounced the proposed deal for Travis McMichael, with mother Wanda Cooper-Jones and father Marcus Arbery emotionally asking the judge to reject agreements filed for McMichael and his father, Greg McMichael.

In rejecting the deal, U.S. District Judge Lisa Godbey Wood said it would have locked her into specific terms — including 30 years in federal prison — at sentencing. Wood said that in this case it would only be appropriate to consider the family’s wishes at sentencing, which the proposed deal wouldn’t allow.

Travis and his lawyer asked for a 10 minute break to discuss whether he moves ahead with pleading guilty. The judge had yet to rule on his father’s proposed deal.

 

 

Marcus Arbery told reporters outside the federal courthouse in Brunswick that he’s “mad as hell” over the deal, which lawyer Lee Merritt said could enable Travis and Greg McMichael to spend the first 30 years of their life sentences in federal prison, rather than state prison where conditions are tougher.

“Ahmaud is a kid you cannot replace,” Arbery said. “He was killed racially and we want 100% justice, not no half justice.”

Cooper-Jones described the U.S. Justice Department’s decision to propose the plea deal despite her objections as “disrespectful.”

“I fought so hard to get these guys in the state prison,” she said. “I told them very, very adamantly that I wanted them to go to state prison and do their time. … Then I got up this morning and found out they had accepted this ridiculous plea.”

Wood continued preparations to summon summoning the first 50 potential jurors to the courthouse on Feb. 7 for questioning.

The proposed plea agreements were filed with the court late Sunday. There was no mention of a deal with their co-defendant, William “Roddie” Bryan. No details were disclosed in court Monday morning. Federal prosecutors didn’t mention the deals in the court’s morning session.

 

 

Federal deals would not affect state murder convictions in Arbery’s killing. All three men were sentenced to life in prison on Jan. 7 after a trial last fall.

The hate crime charges accuse McMichaels and Bryan of violating the 25-year-old Black man’s civil rights by chasing him through their neighborhood in coastal Georgia on Feb. 23, 2020. The McMichaels armed themselves and pursued Arbery in one pickup truck while Bryan joined the chase in another and recorded video of Travis McMichael blasting Arbery with a shotgun.

A national outcry erupted when the graphic video leaked online two months later. Georgia was one of just four U.S. states without a hate crimes law at the time. Legislators quickly approved one, but it came too late for state hate crime charges in Arbery’s killing.

During the state trial in Glynn County Superior Court, the defense argued that the white men had authority to chase Arbery because they reasonably suspected he had been committing crimes in their neighborhood. Travis McMichael testified he opened fire only after Arbery attacked him with fists and tried to grab his shotgun.

The federal judge ordered that a jury pool be chosen from throughout the Southern District of Georgia, which covers 43 counties, to improve odds of seating a fair and unbiased jury.