Photo by Maria Oswalt on Unsplash
Fani Willis is an impressive woman. She is the District Attorney for Fulton County, Georgia, and she is about to take Donald J. Trump to task for election interference. Plenty of pundits have pointed out that Willis appears to be much more focused on holding Trump accountable than our attorney general, Merrick Garland, is.
Some have cited the justice department’s close ties with Congress and the executive branch for making it more complicated for a federal agency like the DOJ to take down Trump than for a state official operating locally. That may be true, but it doesn’t strike me as the main reason Willis is leading the charge.
Willis is black. As a black woman, Willis has no allegiance to the “old boy network” that so painstakingly separates powerful white men from everyone else. She has no reason to protect the Trumps of the world. The Trumps of the world have trampled all over women and people of color. The twice-impeached former president is lucky D.A. Willis is so professional. If I were she, I might be out for blood. But she seems content with justice.
That’s the thing about black people — they’re generally content with justice. They’re not asking to be treated better than anybody else — they just want to be treated fairly.
On the other hand, Merrick Garland is an indoctrinated network member. I wouldn’t say he’s at the top of their hierarchy, but he’s in the club. And one of the rules of membership is that you don’t target one of your own.
If Republicans with power continue to treat investigating Trump as a political issue rather than a criminal investigation, Garland will feel pressure to tread very carefully. I don’t think he’ll succumb to that pressure in the end, but I do think he is proceeding with an overabundance of caution at this time.
Willis, on the other hand, is rolling ahead. She is beholden to no one. She is fearless because fearlessness is necessary. It is necessary because the one thing Donald Trump has going for him — indeed, the only thing Donald Trump has going for him — is his ability to instill fear. Or, more to the point, his ability to encourage others to instill fear.
But fear will not stop Fani Willis.
Willis recently subpoenaed both Rudy Giuliani and Senator Lindsey Graham. Graham’s lawyers insist he’s merely being called as a witness, but the facts suggest otherwise. As for Giuliani, if obtained, I suspect his testimony will be much like General Flynn’s: a series of “taking the Fifth” to every question asked.
However things unfold in Georgia, some will complain that AG Garland isn’t moving fast enough in his attempt to prosecute Trump for federal crimes. Some will continue to believe that Garland should beat Willis to the punch, but I disagree.
I think Willis will raise the bar. She will show us what it means to be a servant of the people. Once Willis paves the way, I think Garland will follow. But even if he doesn’t, Willis will take down Trump.
This will not make up for any prior injustices done to women or people of color, but at least it points us in the right direction. In light of Trump’s history of racism and his serial abuse of women, as well as his consistent denial that there is systemic racism in our country and in particular in our police force, it is both a supreme irony and poetic justice that a black woman will be the first person ever to hold Trump accountable.
I, for one, am loving this.