Fani Willis: Who is the Fulton County DA behind Donald Trump’s historic 2023 mugshot, and how did her Georgia election interference case against him just collapse in November 2025?
Fani Taifa Willis, 54, has served as the District Attorney of Fulton County, Georgia since January 2021, becoming the first woman ever to hold the position in the state’s most populous county.
A career prosecutor with over 20 years in the DA’s office, Willis built her reputation handling high-profile cases, including the Atlanta Public Schools cheating scandal and the murder of a teacher by her colleagues.
She gained national prominence in August 2023 when her office secured a sweeping 41-count RICO indictment against Donald Trump and 18 co-defendants, accusing them of running a criminal enterprise to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 victory in Georgia.
The indictment centered on the infamous January 2, 2021 phone call in which Trump told Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes” — exactly the margin by which he lost the state.
On August 24, 2023, Donald Trump surrendered at the Fulton County Jail to face those charges. He became the first former U.S. president in history to have a mugshot taken.
The now-iconic image — Trump glaring intensely at the camera with furrowed brows — was released publicly within hours and immediately became the most famous mugshot ever taken.
Trump’s campaign began selling merchandise featuring the photo within minutes, raising millions of dollars from T-shirts, mugs, posters, and even trading cards bearing the image.
The mugshot transformed into a powerful political symbol for Trump’s base, representing what they called the “weaponization” of the justice system against him.
The Georgia case began unraveling in early 2024 when it was revealed that Willis had a romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor she personally hired to lead the Trump investigation.
Evidence showed the couple took luxury vacations together that Wade paid for, while Willis’s office was simultaneously paying Wade over $650,000 in taxpayer funds.
After months of hearings, the Georgia Court of Appeals disqualified Willis from the case in December 2024, citing the appearance of impropriety.
The case was reassigned, and on November 26, 2025 — exactly 826 days after the indictment — the new prosecuting authority formally moved to dismiss all remaining charges against Trump and his co-defendants.
The dismissal effectively ended one of the four criminal cases against Trump, leaving the former and now current president-elect with no remaining state prosecutions.
For Fani Willis, the collapse of her highest-profile case has severely damaged her once-rising political star and made her a frequent target of Republican criticism nationwide.