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When it comes to Donald Trump’s offensive against prosecutors, the bulk of the former president’s attention of late has been directed at trying to smear special counsel Jack Smith. As recently as two weeks ago, the Republican even suggested putting Smith “in jail.”
But facing the very real prospect of an indictment in Georgia, Trump’s offensive against Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis continues to intensify. During an event last week in New Hampshire, for example, the former president not only called the prosecutor a “racist” — a label he tends to reserve for Black prosecutors — he also made up a baseless story about Willis having an affair with a gang member.
That, of course, was just the start. On Saturday morning, by way of his social media platform, Trump again condemned Willis as a “RACIST,” gave her a new nickname (“Phoney”), and accused the local prosecutor of targeting him to raise money for her re-election campaign. A few hours later, he published a related missive, adding, “How can they charge me in Georgia? The phone call was PERFECT. WITCH HUNT!”
A day later, the former president kept the offensive going, again pointing to an “affair” that doesn’t appear to have happened in reality. In a separate message, Trump went on to argue that he “simply complained that the Election was Rigged and Stolen,” adding that he has “Massive and Conclusive Proof.”
Right off the bat, it’s worth taking a moment to note that the election was neither rigged nor stolen; Willis is neither a racist nor someone who had an affair with a gang member; and if the former president had “Massive and Conclusive Proof” to substantiate his ridiculous conspiracy theories, he’s kept the evidence well hidden for nearly three years.
What’s more, while we’re not privy to the private conversations between Trump’s lawyers and their scandal-plagued client, recent history suggests the former president’s online hysterics were the result of some unpleasant conversations about a likely imminent indictment.
But also notable is the Republican’s apparent confusion about the nature of the scandal. To hear Trump tell it, the entire case is about his call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Saturday, Jan. 2, 2021, when the then-president told the Georgian he wanted someone to “find” enough votes to flip the state’s election results, even if that meant overturning the will of the voters. It’s why Trump is now calling Willis “Phoney” — a clumsy attempt at a pun — and re-emphasizing his tired talking appoints about the conversation having been “perfect.”
Part of the problem with this is that the call in question was anything but perfect. More important, however, is the apparent fact that the former president’s underlying assumption is highly dubious: Trump thinks the entire scandal is about one phone meeting, though there’s reason to believe the case is far broader. CNN reported yesterday:
Atlanta-area prosecutors investigating efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia are in possession of text messages and emails directly connecting members of Donald Trump’s legal team to the early January 2021 voting system breach in Coffee County, sources tell CNN.
The report, which has not been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, added that the case is likely to focus on a voting systems breach in Coffee County, with prosecutors reportedly having “gathered evidence indicating it was a top-down push by Trump’s team to access sensitive voting software.”
Or put another way, Trump’s Raffensperger call was itself scandalous, but this case isn’t just about the call. After the former president and his allies spent months accusing their foes of manipulating elections equipment, there are new allegations that it was Trump’s allies who tried to manipulate elections equipment.
For more on the broader controversy, The New York Times and The Washington Post published lengthy reports today on the scope of the scandal.