A tense email exchange about race unfolded between Fulton County prosecutors and Donald Trump's lead defense lawyer in the case, the New York Times reported Thursday.
The newspaper obtained the thread of emails, which began with an annoyed Steven H. Sadow, Trump's lead counsel, on Jan. 6 when he complained that previous messages were not getting a response from District Attorney Fani Willis' team.
“For the life of me, I cannot understand why you refuse to respond to the series of emails below," he wrote in the message that was sent to a full list of prosecutors and defense attorneys on the Trump election interference case.
Five days later, the report explained, executive D.A. Daysha Young, who is Black, replied that she and Willis “are both aware, especially as an African American woman, that some find it difficult to treat us respectfully.”
Sadow responded by calling her comment “offensive, uncalled for, and untrue” to imply that racism was playing a role in his email. He went on to accuse Young of "haughtiness" for refusing to respond to his initial message.
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“In the legal community (and the world at large), some people will never be able to respect African Americans and/or women as their equal and counterpart,” Willis wrote in a reply to Sadow. “That is a burden you do not experience. Further, some are so used to doing it they are not even aware they are doing it while others are intentional in their continued disrespect.”
“Now you know, I cannot be bullied,” she continued. “So I do not even think anyone on this team thought someone was silly enough to try that as a tactic. As you are aware, I have now experienced some of the most powerful people in the country call me everything, but a child of God. But, yet here I and my team stand still pursuing justice.”
Trump has used racially charged language about Willis, claiming she was “having an affair” with a “gang member.”
Willis spoke out about the challenges of being a Black prosecutor on such a high-profile case during a church sermon last weekend.
"I don't think either of us at the time had an idea what I would inherit or gain as I became a DA," an emotional Willis said, pausing to collect herself. "A divorced single mom who doesn't belong to the right social groups, doesn't necessarily come from the right family, doesn't have the right pedigree. The assignment was just too high for lowly me."
"Seven of the highest profile cases in the United States going to land right here?" she asked. "No, please make it stop. God, you forgot to mention that my life and the life of my family would be threatened so regularly, I now think it's not normal if I don't have two death threats a week. God, you did not tell me that people would call me the N-word more than they call me Fani."
