'Checkmate': Ex-FBI official says Fani Willis just nailed Trump for fans' threats to jurors
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis submitted a filing Wednesday that asked the judge overseeing the 2020 election case to grant protections for jurors and others associated with the trial. According to Willis, there is a very high threat level after grand jurors were targeted by online Russian actors and Donald Trump's supporters.
Speaking about it, MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace explained that the now Russian-hosted website, Parler, is doxing Willis and others, meaning personal information is posted on the internet with the intention of encouraging someone to inflict harm.
Frank Figliuzzi, the former assistant director for counterintelligence for the FBI, explained that the threat level, in this case, is very real.
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"So, not the first time," he said. "There's example after example of this. Now, what can you do about it? That pretty much stops. You hit that wall if you're the FBI or U.S. intelligence trying to trace this back. The Russians are not helpful, in fact, they're all in on it at best with a wink and a nod to whoever in their citizenry is doing this.
"But more common is to see government affiliation. Not much happens in Russia of this nature without some acquiescence from the Russian government. Sometimes it is the Russian government with some arm's length plausible deniability."
Figliuzzi explained that what Willis has done in this case is call it out publicly and link it to Donald Trump.
"And saying, 'Look, Mr. Trump, I see what you're doing. I see you. You refuse to call out violence and silent threats inciting these people. That's part of your game is to make it — make people afraid to be selected for a jury, a jury pool," he told Wallace.
It's why some Trump foes have encouraged judges to hold him pending trial.
He said that he thinks Willis is already anticipating jurors expressing their fears about serving.
"She's countering this, it's a checkmate," Figliuzzi continued. "It's a chess move, but it's also very real. The threat is real. As removed as Russia might seem, if they're hosting this it doesn't mean that the bad actors are over there. It means they're here and they've got GPS coordinates on where she is and where her family members are and they can do it to jurors as well. And that's what she's trying to protect on a micro level. On a macro level, she's trying to protect our criminal justice system."
In the past, Figliuzzi warned that such violence is only going to get worse until something is done to stop it.
See Figliuzzi's stark warning in the video below or at the link here.
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