Who Are the Four Trump Prosecutors?
All are in a race to be the first prosecutor in U.S. history to put a former president in jail
It’s no secret that four ambitious, liberal Democrat prosecutors from New York, Georgia and Washington, D.C. are eager to take down former President Donald J. Trump.
Less known are the backgrounds of the prosecutors themselves.
Who are these people?
Fani Willis
Age: 50
Hometown: Inglewood, California
Education: Howard University, 1993; Emory University School of Law
Family: Married, two adult daughters
Career: Fulton County District Attorney, 2021-Present; Fulton County District Attorney’s Office, 2002-2018; South Fulton Municipal Court Chief Judge, 2019-21
Fani T. Willis, 50, is the elected Democrat District Attorney of Fulton County, Georgia. She is the driver behind former President Donald Trump’s most recent indictment, handing down a slew of state charges in Georgia around allegations that Trump tried to overturn the 2020 election.
Born in 1971, in Inglewood, California, Willis moved to Maryland, where she attended Regina High School in Hyattsville. After high school she attended Howard University, graduating in 1993, and then attending Emory University School of Law.
She began her career as a prosecutor in 2002, joining the district attorney’s office that she now oversees. She spent 16 years as a prosecutor there before running for a superior court judgeship, which she lost in 2018. She was elected Fulton County D.A. in the fall election of 2020, defeating a six-term incumbent who was her former boss, District Attorney Paul Howard, Jr.
Willis is divorced from Fred Willis. They have two adult daughters, Nia (24) and Kinaya (22).
Willis once served as the chief judge of the municipal court in South Fulton, Georgia, where she lives. She was appointed to the job after losing her race for superior court judge in 2018.
The First Black D.A. in Fulton County
Willis, like New York prosecutor Alvin Bragg and New York Attorney General Letitia James, is a “first” in her current job. She is the first black woman to be the Fulton County District Attorney – the largest district attorney’s office in Georgia.
She has considerable prosecutorial experience, having worked as a prosecutor for 19 years. She led more than 100 jury trials and “hundreds of murder cases.” Since becoming D.A., her office’s conviction rate has been nearly 90 percent.
She is well-known around Atlanta for a 2013 case she brought against a group of local educators. In 2022, according to a New York Times article, “Before the Trump investigation, Ms. Willis’s most high-profile case, as an assistant prosecutor, was against a group of Atlanta public school system educators, who were indicted in 2013 and charged with racketeering for altering students’ standardized test scores in an effort to protect their jobs and win favor and bonuses from administrators.”
Citing a 3,000-person witness list in that case, Willis credits it as the best preparation for her prosecution against President Trump.
“She also learned how to handle intense controversy,” according to the New York Times article. “Most of the defendants were Black. So were many of her critics, who were displeased by the sight of teachers from a struggling urban school district put on trial. She was called a sellout, she said, and worse.”
Her Father, John Clifford Floyd, Black Panther Activist and Criminal Defense Lawyer
Willis was raised by both her mother and her father, who divorced. She remembers splitting her time between their households.
Her father, John Clifford Floyd, made an impact on Willis at a young age.
He was an active member of the black nationalist “Black Panthers” party who, in 1967, formed the first California chapter of the group in Los Angeles, according to an article in the Southwest Topics-Wave, a community newspaper published at the time.
In a Black Panther interview video, he talked about his personal work with both Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X.
John Clifford Floyd was active in politics. He helped run Jesse Jackson’s 1984 failed presidential bid. He got Fani interested in law at an early age. He put her to work at the courthouse as his file clerk starting when she was in grade school.
Fani Willis’ father, John Floyd, was a campaign manager for Jesse Jackson in his 1984 Presidential campaign.
In 1968, John Floyd sued the Los Angeles Police for $2 million ($17.6 million in 2023 dollars) after they arrested him for loitering. He said the word “connotes a possible sexual connotation.”
A 1968 Los Angeles Times story reported John C. Floyd’s lawsuit against Los Angeles Police.
She had a foothold in the racial tensions of her time. As an undergraduate, Fani Willis attended Freaknik – “the boisterous, mostly Black Atlanta street party that became a headache for city leaders and an inspiration for the novelist Tom Wolfe’s satirical exploration of the Southern city and its racial divides.”
A Self-Labeled ‘Career Trial Lawyer’ Using Trump’s Indictment to Fundraise
When asked about who she is, Willis calls herself a “career trial lawyer.” Sharp-tongued and cross, Willis once lashed out at Georgia Governor Brian Kemp’s lawyer, Brian McEvoy, writing in a nasty email exchange: “You have taken my kindness as weakness. Despite your disdain this investigation continues and will not be derailed by anyone’s antics.”
In a confusing misstep of decorum, four days before her indictment against former President Trump, Willis launched a new campaign fundraising website that bragged about her investigation into Trump.
Letitia James
Hometown: Brooklyn, NY
Age: 37
Family: Unmarried, no children
Education: Lehman College, 1981; Howard University Law; Admitted to New York Bar in 1989
Career: New York Attorney General; Manhattan Public Defender’s Office, staff at New York State Assembly
Letitia James, 37, is the elected Democrat Attorney General of New York, overseeing prosecutions in Manhattan, in New York County.
She was born October 18, 1958, in Brooklyn, N.Y. and grew up in the Park Slope neighborhood. She graduated from Fort Hamilton High School. After graduation, she attended the City University of New York’s Lehman College, majoring in liberal arts with an emphasis on social work. She earned a B.A. in 1981.
James went to law school at Howard University, a historically black college in Washington, D.C. She was admitted to the New York bar in 1989.
Her work history includes the local public defender’s office and the staff of the New York State Assembly at the capitol in Albany.
She is unmarried and has no children.
James began jumping on the “prosecute Trump” bandwagon in March 2019, when she opened her first investigation into Trump.
She focused on whether Trump had systematically misstated the value of his assets to gain financial advantage with lenders and tax authorities. According to the findings of her investigation, James has concluded that Trump lied about his assets to lenders and tax authorities in order to gain a financial advantage.
Four ‘Firsts’
Letitia James is the first black person to hold the office of New York Attorney General.
She also is the first woman to hold that position.
She was the first member of the Working Families Party to ever win any office in New York State (when she won her city council race in 2003).
She also had the distinction of being the first third-party member elected to the New York City Council since 1977.
Going After People to Take Their Jobs? James’ Short-Lived Run for Governor
Before Trump, James made a name for herself during the scandal surrounding N.Y. Governor Andrew Cuomo. She investigated Cuomo for sexual harassment, which led to his resignation. Within days of him resigning, she immediately jumped into the race to succeed him.
Why? Many believe she is politically ambitious and that her investigations are motivated by ambition and partisan bias.
Nursing Home Covid Investigation
In early March 2020, James began to investigate allegations of COVID-19-related neglect of residents in nursing homes. She received 953 complaints which she solicited from families.
On January 28, 2021, her office released a report accusing the state of putting out false public data that undercounted nursing home deaths by up to 50 percent.
Vendetta Declaration in Election Victory Speech
James is the first African-American and first woman to be elected to Attorney General of New York. When she won her race, she was quick to target Trump in her victory speech.
“He should know that we here in New York — and I, in particular — we are not scared of you. And as the next attorney general of his home state, I will be shining a bright light into every dark corner of his real estate dealings, and every dealing, demanding truthfulness at every turn.”
‘Let’s Sue the NRA Out of Existence’
In 2020, James filed a civil lawsuit against the National Rifle Association in Manhattan. Because the NRA was originally chartered in New York, her office had jurisdiction.
Her suit seeks to permanently shut down the NRA. Her reasoning includes alleged corruption and misspending. She’s also suing former Executive Director Wayne LaPierre and three other executives. She is “seeking to oust Mr. LaPierre and Mr. Frazer, and to bar all four men from serving on nonprofit boards in New York again.”
The Assassination of James’ City Council Opponent
James first ran for the 35th City Council district in November 2001. She ran as a Working Families Party candidate.
In the race, she got 42% of the vote, but lost to James E. Davis, a Democrat.
Two years later, during his re-election campaign, Davis was shot and killed during an assassination by a disgruntled constituent.
Sexual Harassment Lawsuit Scandal
Letitia James is no stranger to controversy.
She was sued by a former aide for continuing to employ another aide (her longtime chief of staff) who was “known” to commit sexual assault and battery.
In the suit, James’ former aide, Sofia Quintanar, said that James’ chief of staff, Ibrahim Khan, groped and kissed her.
The lawsuit against James and Khan seeks damages for loss of income, embarrassment, and pain and suffering.
Ethics Complaint
Former Gov. Cuomo filed a complaint with the state ethics board, alleging that James violated rules of conduct during her investigation of him.
“A.G. James cynically manipulated a legal process for personal, political gain,” according to the complaint signed by Mr. Cuomo.
Jack Smith
Hometown: Clay, NY
Age: 54
Family: Married, one daughter
Education: State University of New York-Oneonta; Harvard Law School
Career: Trump Special Counsel; Prosecutor, Manhattan District Attorney’s Office; U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York; U.S. Department of Justice, D.C., Public Integrity Unit
Jack Smith, 54, is the Special Counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice prosecuting Trump in two separate cases.
Born John Luman Smith on June 5, 1969, he grew up in Clay, New York. Smith attended Liverpool High School, where he played baseball and football graduating in 1987. After high school, he went to the State University of New York at Oneonta. He graduated in 1991. He then attended Harvard Law School.
Shortly after graduating law school, Smith was hired as a prosecutor in the Manhattan district attorney’s office. He later worked in the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn, rising to eventually become chief of criminal litigation.
He went to D.C. in 2010 and led the Justice Department’s public integrity unit for five years.
Jack Smith is married to Katy Chevigny. They have one daughter.
Attorney General Merrick B. Garland appointed Smith in November 2022 as special counsel to oversee two investigations into former President Trump. The first case is about Trump’s alleged attempts to “overturn the 2020 election” and his alleged involvement with the Jan. 6 incident. The second case is about Trump’s alleged retention of classified documents at his home in Florida.
Wife Is a Left-Wing Filmmaker
Chevigny, a New York City native, Hunter College H.S. and 1990 Yale graduate, moved to Chicago after college to work for the Vietnamese Association.
She is fluent in Chinese.
Chevigny is most notable for Deadline, a film she made about former Illinois Governor George Ryan’s blanket commutation of 167 death sentences in the state. Ryan, a Republican, would later go to prison on corruption charges.
A month after his indictment, Ryan traveled to the Sundance Film Festival to promote Chevigny’s film, telling reporters that “the death penalty system and the laws of this country need to be fixed.”
A Joe Biden donor, Chevigny also worked on films promoting Michelle Obama, and criticizing the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, which held government couldn’t limit the free speech of U.S. citizens.
Passed Over by Trump for a Promotion
Smith has reason to dislike Donald Trump – it’s personal.
He was appointed “acting” U.S. Attorney after Trump took office. He had hoped to be appointed as the U.S. Attorney, but was passed over. He then left government service for the private sector for a few years.
He has a unique prosecutorial style. For example, he is known by colleagues for liking to make charging decisions “as swiftly as possible.”
“Former colleagues said Mr. Smith’s most memorable attribute was a stripped-down management style that put a premium on gathering enough information to make a charging decision as swiftly as possible,” wrote Glenn Thrush in the New York Times.
War Crimes at The Hague
Before becoming special counsel, Jack Smith made a name for himself as being the top prosecutor at The Hague investigating war crimes that took place in Kosovo.
He also gained some fame in New York, too. While working as a prosecutor in Manhattan, Smith
ran investigation into the attack of Abner Louima, a Haitian immigrant who was sexually assaulted by police with a broomstick inside a Brooklyn precinct in 1997.
High-Profile Prosecutions of Republican Politicians
Smith made a name for himself trying and convicting Republican elected officials. However, his successes were short-lived.
He successfully secured a conviction against Bob McDonnell, the Republican former governor of Virginia. The conviction was later overturned by the Supreme Court.
He also got a conviction in the trial against former Representative Rick Renzi, Republican of Arizona.
President Trump pardoned Renzi during his final hours as president.
Triathlete
In his personal life, Smith is a runner and cyclist.
He began competing in triathlons in 2002, although he was “a weak swimmer who could barely complete a single lap” when he began.
Since that time, he has completed nine full Ironman triathlons, including in Germany, Brazil, Canada and Denmark.
In the 2000s, during a bike ride, he was hit by a truck and was seriously hurt. His injuries included a fractured pelvis.
“I don’t think I was very talented, but you field a lot of ground balls, you’re a good shortstop,” he said.
Alvin Bragg
Hometown: New York, NY
Age: 49
Family: Married, no children
Education: Harvard; Harvard Law School
Career: District Attorney, Manhattan
Alvin L. Bragg, 49, is the Democrat elected District Attorney of New York County (Manhattan). He grew up in Harlem and attended the private prep school, Trinity School, in Manhattan.
He attended Harvard University where he earned an A.B. in Government (cum laude, general studies). He stayed at Harvard for law school. During college, he was President of the Black Students Association. Students knew him as a mediator and “conciliator.”
He has an extensive record managing and running prosecutions at various levels. He was the chief deputy attorney general in New York State, where he managed an office of 1,500 people. He also was the Executive Deputy Attorney General for Social Justice.
He served as Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York, focusing on corruption.
Outside of public service, Bragg was a Visiting Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Racial Justice Project at New York Law School. Before that, he practiced as a civil rights attorney.
Bragg married Jamila Marie Ponton in 2003. He isn’t known to have children.
In his case against former President Trump, Bragg has filed 34 felony counts of falsifying business records for allegedly making hush money payments toward the end of his 2016 presidential campaign.
Stopped at Gunpoint
Bragg isn’t shy about his background and how growing up helped shape his views.
Three times during his childhood, he says he was stopped at gunpoint during “unconstitutional stops” by the NYPD.
First Black Person to Hold Office of Manhattan D.A.
After he was elected as Manhattan’s new D.A., the headlines read: “History was made in the Manhattan District Attorney’s race Tuesday as Democrat Alvin Bragg became the first Black man elected to that office.”
He is the fourth Manhattan district attorney elected in the last 80 years.
1992 Harvard Protests
In February 1992, three dozen students, Black and Jewish, faced off at the Freshman Union at Harvard University on a Sunday night in a “tense discussion.”
Days before, CUNY professor Leonard Jeffries gave a speech at Harvard, which ignited a 400-student protest.
Bragg moderated the Freshman Union discussion, and was credited for preventing it from escalating.
‘The Anointed One’
In 1995, the Harvard Crimson referred to him as “the anointed one,” a moniker that he still holds to this day.
His mentors include the Rev. Calvin O. Butts, pastor of Harlem’s influential Abyssinian Baptist Church.
Striver’s Row
Bragg grew up on a street known as Striver’s Row, an “historic haven for upper-middle-class Black professional households,” which was featured in the movie “Jungle Fever.”
Booker T. Washington IV is “rumored to live there.”
His Father’s Influence
Bragg’s father worked at the New York Urban League, and took Alvin to his office after school every day to give him “a glimpse of how its clients lived.”
He also took him to homeless shelters, which he oversaw as a city administrator.
FBI Shooting
In August 2023, the FBI shot and killed a man in Utah who had made public statements threatening Bragg and President Joe Biden.
Partnership, Fairness, and Safety
During his victory speech on election night in November 2021, Bragg said, “That is the trust that’s been given to me on the ballot, but given to all of us, that’s what we’ve worked for, to show the city and the country a model for pairing partnership, pairing fairness and safety into one.”
On Growing Up
“I grew up in Harlem, deeply affected by the criminal justice system—most directly through three gunpoint stops by the NYPD during unconstitutional stops, and then also having had a gun pointed at me three times by people who weren’t police officers.”
During his campaign for D.A., Bragg talked about the Trump case in his profile interview. He likened his Trump prosecutions to prosecutions involving tenant harassment and police-involved killings.
“As the Chief Deputy Attorney General in New York State, I managed a 1,500-person staff and led some of the office’s biggest cases—from launching the probe of the Trump Foundation to cracking down on tenant harassment to leading investigations of police-involved killings.”
On Targeting Trump
Bragg also boasted about his targeting of Trump as a strength during his campaign.
“I know how to build complex cases,” he said. “The next DA will inherit an ongoing investigation of Donald Trump. As Chief Deputy AG, I led the investigation into the Trump Foundation resulting in a judge ordering Trump to pay $2 million settlement and sued the Trump administration’s decision to add a question about citizenship to the 2020 census and I’ve done complex mortgage fraud and tax cases.”
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