ATLANTA — Fulton County District Attorney thanked constituents Thursday after she won re-election this week for four more years in office.
Willis won re-election with just more than 68% of the vote against Republican challenger Courtney Kramer.
"Fulton County, thank you for trusting me with the honor of serving as your District Attorney and giving me four more years in this office," she posted on X on Thursday. "We will continue the work of getting justice for the people of Fulton County without fear or favor and keeping this community safe."
Willis was a high-profile district attorney in her first term, initiating the prosecutions of former President Donald Trump and others in the 2020 election interference case as well as rapper Young Thug in the YSL gang case.
The YSL case is close to resolved now, after Young Thug entered a non-negotiated guilty plea to some of his charges, and no contest on the others, in a legal move to get a more favorable sentencing directly from the judge than what was being offered in deals by prosecutors -- which succeeded.
The Trump case is now in limbo after his victory in the presidential election.
11Alive's Grace King re ported this week that while it's unclear how federal Justice Department protocol, which says sitting presidents cannot be prosecuted, would apply to a local case such as the one in Fulton County, previous court conversations have indicated it wouldn't resume until Trump is out of office.
"I'll put one more question out to the floor. This isn't one that has to be answered now, but I think it might be worth considering," Judge Scott McAfee asked Trump's attorney Steve Sadow in one proceeding, according to court transcripts. "If your client does win (the) election in 2024, could he even be tried in 2025?"
"I believe that under the Supremacy Clause and his duties as President of the United States, that this trial would not take place, if at all, until after he left his term of office," Sadow replied.
Legal experts said a Fulton County trial before Inauguration Day is implausible.
The case is currently on hold over the allegations that emerged earlier this year of an improper conflict due to the relationship eventually revealed DA Willis and former Special Prosecutor Nathan Wade. Judge McAfee ruled Willis could remain on the Trump case, but only if Wade resigned.
The former special prosecutor did resign off the case, but attorneys for Trump have appealed the portion of McAfee's ruling that allowed Willis to stay on. The Georgia Court of Appeals will consider whether Willis can continue leading the case after oral arguments on December 5. Decisions are generally issued "six to eight months after a case is docketed," according to its website.
Darryl Cohen, a former prosecutor with the Fulton County District Attorney's Office, said it's unlikely this case will continue forward.
"Do I think it will proceed? I do not," he said. "But, Fani Willis is her own person. She's going to do what she thinks is appropriate, and nobody knows what she thinks at this point."