Troubles Worsen for Fani Willis and Alvin Bragg After Top Trump Justice Official Vows ‘Justice’ for Alleged Misconduct

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s suggestion that the Trump Administration intends further action against Democratic attorneys general like Alvin Bragg and Fani Willis could preview the next chapter of legal action against the prosecutors who pursued President Trump.Mr. Blanche, who once served as a criminal defense attorney for the 47th president, is now the second highest ranking official at the Department of Justice, behind only Attorney General Pam Bondi. When he was asked at the Conservative Political Action Conference last week about whether Mr. Bragg and Ms. Willis could face “justice,” the administration official “didn’t hedge,” as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution characterized it.Mr. Blanche told the CPAC crowd “Yes. When you talk about justice, we are working hard every day. And I don’t just say ‘working hard’ as a cliché. I mean the attorney general and myself, every day, seven days a week, are focused on bringing justice — and it will come.” Mr. Bragg, the elected district attorney for Manhattan, successfully prosecuted Mr. Trump in the hush money case that stemmed from his alleged sexual encounter with the adult film performer Stormy Daniels.A Manhattan verdict brought in 34 convictions for falsification of business records, which were elevated to felonies after the presiding judge, Juan Merchan, allowed Mr. Bragg’s office to argue that those falsifications were done in the service of a second crime, election interference. Judge Merchan sentenced Mr. Trump, who by sentencing had won reelection, to an “unconditional discharge”— meaning no penalty. Mr. Trump, who is technically a convicted felon, has appealed that verdict while also trying to get that appeal heard in a federal rather than a state forum.Mr. Trump has criticized Mr. Bragg, calling him a criminal and declaring that “Alvin Bragg does nothing. He goes after guys like Trump who did nothing wrong. There are hundreds of murderers all over the city, they know who they are and they don’t pick them up. They go after Trump.” Mr. Trump has also criticized Judge Merchan as a “certified Trump hater.” The jurist gave small sums to Democrats in 2020. His adult daughter Loren worked at a Democratic marketing firm that counted Vice President Harris as a client.One of Ms. Bondi’s first acts in office was to charter a “Weaponization Working Group” to probe “Federal cooperation with the weaponization by the Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, New York Attorney General Letitia James, their respective staffs, and other New York officials to target President Trump, his family, and his businesses.” Special Counsel Jack Smith was also named as part of the group’s remit. The group’s original leader, Pardon Attorney Ed Martin, has been reassigned in a personnel shift that some observers see as a tightening of the reigns by Mr. Blanche who is pursuing a more effective, less bombastic approach. Not mentioned in the memorandum that created that group is one of Mr. Trump’s primary antagonists, Ms. Willis, the elected district attorney for Fulton County, which comprises much of downtown Atlanta. She brought a sprawling racketeering case against Mr. Trump and 18 others for interference in the 2020 presidential election in the Peach State. That case was upended when the secret romantic relationship between Ms. Willis and her handpicked special prosecutor, Nathan Wade, came to light. A trial judge, Scott McAfee, found that their behavior was “legally improper” and “emitted an odor of mendacity.” The Georgia Court of Appeals went further to rule that this was the “rare case in which disqualification is mandated and no other remedy will suffice.” A dismissal followed Ms. Willis’s disqualification, as the prosecutor, Peter Skandalakis, who was by law assigned to decide the fate of the case, could no other district attorney who wanted to take it on. Mr. Willis is contesting the constitutionality of a law passed in the wake of her disqualification that appears to put the taxpayers who elected her on the hook for the $17 million in legal fees amassed by the defendants in the election case — including some $6 million doled out in Mr. Trump’s defense. Neither Ms. Willis nor Mr. Bragg would be the first state prosecutor to face legal wrath from the Trump Administration. That dubious distinction belongs to New York’s attorney general, Letitia James. In October she was charged with two counts of bank fraud, an indictment that was dismissed when she — and the former FBI director James Comey — successfully argued that the prosecutor in charge, Lindsey Halligan, was unlawfully appointed. The DOJ attempted twice more to convene grand juries to convict Ms. James, but neither would agree to hand up charges. The government has appealed the disqualification, and in the meantime a new criminal referral has been directed to federal prosecutors in Illinois and Florida. It is not yet clear whether an indictment will be forthcoming in either of those jurisdictions. Ms. Willis proclaims her innocence and calls the accusations “threadbare.”No federal charges have been levied against Mr. Smith, whose two prosecutions of Mr. Trump — for hoarding secret documents at Mar-a-Lago and election interference — were dismissed when the president regained the White House following the 2024 election. Mr. Smith, though, has testified that he would not be shocked to be targeted for prosecution. While Ms. Willis and Ms. James are presenting easier targets due to messy personal lives — involving Ms. Willis’ love life and Ms. James’ mortgages — the taciturn Mr. Bragg has yet to present any similar vulnerabilities.

Troubles Worsen for Fani Willis and Alvin Bragg After Top Trump Justice Official Vows ‘Justice’ for Alleged Misconduct

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