A Georgia district attorney investigating former President Donald Trump for possible meddling in the 2020 election has asked the FBI to provide extra security for her office in the wake of Mr. Trump criticizing prosecutors and suggesting he would pardon people involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis told the FBI in a letter that “security concerns were escalated [last] weekend by the rhetoric of former President Trump … Mr. Trump made multiple references to investigations … including the criminal investigation underway in my office.”
She asked that the FBI conduct “an immediate risk assessment” of the Fulton County Courthouse and provide resources, including “intelligence,” and agents.
At a rally in Texas on Saturday night, Mr. Trump said if he runs for president in 2024 and wins, he will treat the Jan. 6 defendants “fairly.”
“And if it requires pardons, we will give them pardons because they are being treated so unfairly,” Mr. Trump said.
People in the pro-Trump mob at the Capitol were attempting to stop Congress from certifying the Electoral College results that showed President Biden won the election.
SEE ALSO: Trump signals openness to pardoning individuals charged in Jan. 6 Capitol riot
Ms. Willis also cited comments from Mr. Trump that she said were directed at her investigation.
“If these radical, vicious, racist prosecutors do anything wrong or illegal, I hope we are going to have in this country the biggest protests we have ever had in Washington, D.C., in New York, in Atlanta and elsewhere, because our country and our elections are corrupt,” Mr. Trump said.
The former president told the crowd that the prosecutors investigating him are “mentally sick” and that their real goal is to harm his supporters.
“In reality, they’re not after me, they’re after you, and I just happen to be the person that’s in the way,” Mr. Trump said.
Ms. Willis told the FBI that extra security must be in place “well in advance” of her convening a special grand jury on May 2 to consider whether Mr. Trump and his associates improperly pressured Georgia officials to change the 2020 election results.
The former president told Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in a phone call on Jan. 2, 2021, that he wanted to “find” 11,780 votes, which was one more than Mr. Biden’s margin of victory in the state.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia criticized fellow Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina on Sunday after he called Mr. Trump’s desire to pardon rioters “inappropriate.” She accused Mr. Graham of “pretending to be a friend” of Mr. Trump.
New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, a Republican, disagreed with Mr. Trump’s suggestion of pardons, saying on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that people who participated in the riot “have to be held accountable.”
The letter to the FBI was reported by 11Alive, the NBC affiliate in Atlanta.
Mr. Trump said Sunday that he wanted then-Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the 2020 presidential election, asserting that Mr. Pence had the power to do so and slamming a current bipartisan effort to revise the Electoral Count Act.
“Actually, what they are saying is that Mike Pence did have the right to change the outcome, and they now want to take that right away. Unfortunately, he didn’t exercise that power, he could have overturned the election!” Mr. Trump said.
Under current law, the role of the vice president in certifying the Electoral College count is ceremonial.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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