UPDATE 8/9/23, 6:08 p.m. ET: Fani Willis responded to Trump baselessly claiming that she had an affair with YSL Mondo in an email sent to her team that was obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
"It is my understanding that an ad was put in the Atlanta market to run between today 8/9 and 8/13 that will have derogatory and false information about me as the District Attorney of the Atlanta Judicial Circuit," the email begins. You can head here to read it in full.
See orginal story below.
On Tuesday, Aug. 8, Former President Trump attacked District Attorney of Georgia Fani Willis' with an unfounded lie alleging that she had an affair with a "gang member"—an apparent reference to a case she handled for Young Stoner Life Records co-founder YSL Mondo in 2019.
"They say there’s a young woman—a young racist in Atlanta—they say, I guess, she was after a certain gang and she ended up having an affair with the head of the gang or a gang member. And this is a person who wants to indict me," said Trump, to an audience during a New Hampshire campaign event on Tuesday. "She's got a lot of problems. But she wants to indict me to try and run for some other office. ... By the way, [she] wants to indict me for a perfect phone call.”
Willis assembled a grand jury to investigate the Trump campaign's efforts to interfere with the outcome of Georgia's 2020 election. Among the reasons for the investigation include Trump's call to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, in which he said he wanted him to "find" the votes that would allow him to win the election.
Trump's allegation against Willis seemingly stem from an interview Rolling Stone reporter Andre Gee conducted with YSL Mondo in January this year. Mondo told Rolling Stone that Willis, who prosecuted Young Thug and 13 other defendants in the sweeping RICO case against the music label and alleged gang, gave him a different impression when she represented him during a 2019 aggravated assault case.
"This is not her character, this is not who she is,” said Mondo of Willis, who now has a reputation as being tough on crime. “I done had auntie-to-nephew, mother-to-son type of talks with her. I know this not her character. This is what made me start looking at [the YSL case] like I know it’s bigger than just her. It’s politics behind this shit. It’s other people that’s behind her pulling strings.”
Prior to his latest attack on Willis, Trump shared a video on Truth Social in which he called her a member of a "fraud squad." The video featured the headline to the Rolling Stone interview with Mondo. The clip claimed she "got caught hiding a relationship with a gang member she was prosecuting.” Willis has never attempted to hide her past representation with Mondo and there's no indication that she had a secret affair with him, either.
Trump has a history of attacking prosecutors who are investigating him. Just this week, he also attacked special counsel Jack Smith and the judge assigned to his 2020 election case.
Far-right white nationalist loon Laura Loomer, who was banned from Twitter in 2019 but was reinstated after Elon Musk's purchase of the social media network last year, jumped on the false claim in a post. “Atlanta DA, Fani Willis, who is targeting Donald Trump in Georgia is a straight up THOT,” she wrote. "Turns out she failed to disclose a previous relationship she had with a gang banger she was supposed to be prosecuting. Baby girl belongs in a Trap House. Not a court house.” There is nothing to back up any of her claims.
