Fani Willis, the district attorney in Fulton County, Ga., went before a federal judge on Tuesday in downtown Atlanta as a victim in a sentencing hearing for a man who made racist threats against her last summer, the New York Times reports. In August 2023. Willis, who is leading the state election interference case against former President Donald J. Trump and 14 of his allies, was the subject of a threatening voice mail message that a white man from Huntsville, Ala., Arthur Ray Hanson II, left on a Fulton County customer service line. Hanson used racist epithets against Willis, who is Black, issued warnings like “Watch it when you’re going to the car, OK?” and disparaged her appearance. In a separate call, Hanson also threatened the Fulton County sheriff, Patrick Labat. Hanson pleaded guilty this summer to one charge of making interstate threats.
On Tuesday, at his sentencing hearing, Willis and Labat, who is also Black, had their chance to speak to the judge before he made his decision. Willis spoke of the “vile threat” that Hanson made and of the fear it stoked in her children and in her father. She spoke of the multitude of threats she has received since Trump’s indictment in August 2023, many of which included racist insults. In the end, Judge J.P. Boulee of U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia sentenced Hanson to 21 months in a federal prison. He said that the “appalling” threats had created a real sense of fear for Sheriff Labat and Willis. Hanson and his lawyers argued that he was a good man with a drinking problem and mental health issues, and that he had been drunk when he made the threatening calls. A Black friend of Hanson’s spoke on his behalf, calling him a good man and asking the judge to consider an alternative to prison despite Mr. Hanson’s “mortifying” statements. Hanson spoke a few minutes later. He turned to Willis and Labat and apologized, his fac
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