Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has received so many threats against her life over the past three years that she has had to move “something like four times,” according to her father, retired attorney John Floyd III.
He said that he intentionally did not learn where his daughter had moved in order to help protect her, and now only sees her on occasion.
In case “somebody stuck a gun to my head… I didn’t want to know,” he said.
“This is very hard for me to say,” he added later, noting that he has only seen his daughter on 13 occasions since she had to move.
Floyd offered his testimony Friday as part of the sprawling case Willis brought last year against former President Donald Trump and 18 co-defendants, accusing them of meddling with Georgia’s 2020 presidential election results.
Since some of the defendants’ attorneys have accused her of corruption, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee is expected to weigh in on Willis’ fitness to prosecute the case. He heard testimony from Willis herself on Thursday, along with Nathan Wade, one of three outside attorneys she hired to help with the case.
In January, it was revealed that Willis and Wade were romantically involved. Willis maintains that the relationship presented no conflict of interest.
Willis was sworn in as district attorney on Jan. 1, 2021. The first in-person threats came the next month, her father said, in the form of a group of people yelling outside her house in the early morning hours. At the time, Floyd was living with his daughter at her newly constructed four-bedroom home.
That was also around the time that Willis announced she would be investigating Trump’s election interference. Supporters of the former president are known to make threats against people who attack Trump or attract his criticism.
Floyd “absolutely” feared for his daughter’s safety. Her house became “basically uninhabitable,” he said.
“There’d been so many death threats. They said they were going to blow up the house, they were going to kill her, they were going to kill me, they were going to kill my grandchildren — I mean, on and on and on,” he testified. Police brought bomb-sniffing dogs to patrol the premises.
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Willis moved out within weeks, but Floyd said he stayed behind.
“Somebody needed to protect the house. I stayed there to basically take care of the house, take care of the yard,” he said.
Still, the threatening incidents continued.
“Somebody sprayed [the] B-word and N-word on the house. I don’t think my daughter even knew that. I cleaned it off and called the police, Fulton Police, I’m sure they have records of all the things that happened,” Floyd testified.
“And all the neighbors, I notified all the neighbors to look out, to watch out. It was just so crazy.”