Atlanta

Court filings say personal info of DA, grand jurors and others were posted by Russians to dark web

ATLANTA — Documents filed in court related to the Georgia election interference investigation are shining some more light on the threats that have been hurled toward the Fulton County District Attorney and the member of the grand jury that handed up an indictment last month against former President Donald Trump and 18 of his allies.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis filed a motion Wednesday asking Judge Scott McAfee to “restrict the dissemination of jurors’ identities by any Defendant, members of the press, or any other person during the pendency of this trial.”

“Immediately following the filing of the indictment, anonymous individuals on conspiracy theory websites ‘shared a list of the 23 grand jurors [who approved the indictment] with their supposed full names, ages and addresses’ with the intent to harass and intimidate them,” the motion said.

“Additionally, members of the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office, including the District Attorney herself and members of her family, have been doxed, causing their personal information to be displayed permanently on the internet,” the motion continued. “The personal information was intertwined with derogatory and racist remarks. The United States Department of Homeland Security determined that this information is hosted by a Russian website company and cannot be removed from public view.”

During the lead-up of the indictment, Willis has been outspoken about the threats made against her, other state and local officials, and the grand jurors.

“I’m receiving phone calls and emails and communications that are derogatory in nature. They don’t always state what the reason is that they’re calling. But I’ve probably been called the N word more times in the last two-and-a-half years than most — a hundred people combined,” Willis told Channel 2 investigative reporter Mark Winne.

In the court filing Wednesday, some of those threats were made more clear.

In an affidavit from one of the DA Office’s investigators, it said: “Willis is a victim of doxing, and that information was listed about her, her family members by name, ages with dates of birth, home physical addresses, phone numbers (VOIP and wireless), GPS coordinates, places of employment, work physical addresses, email addresses and social media user names. Information was intertwined with derogatory and racist remarks, such as “Degenerate...n*****’ and ‘f*** this stupid b****’” and ‘b**** is own3d! Trump 2024.’”

The investigator tied the leak of information directly to the indictment of Trump here in Georgia.

“The website where Madam District Attorney Fani T. Willis was being doxed was determined to be hosted in Russia and is known by DHS as to be uncooperative with law enforcement. The users who post on this particular site have doxed other District Attorneys and their families from multiple states, Judges and their families, along with federal employees and their families, and now also members of the Fulton County Grand Jury who voted to indict Former President Donald Trump and their families.”

In the filing was also a letter from Atlanta Police Chief Darin Shierbaum, where he talked about the impact the threats have had on his office and other law enforcement agencies.

“I was able to determine that members of the Fulton County Grand Jury who returned true bill of indictment against 19 people, including Defendant Donald J. Trump, on charges of racketeering and other felony allegations, were being contacted by people in harassing and/or threatening manners. The doxing included home addresses of the grand jurors whose names were found on the doxing website,” Schierbaum said. “As result of determining that doxing had occurred, the Atlanta Police Department enacted an operational plan to protect those that resided in the city of Atlanta.”

The chief said that plan included more than just APD.

“The Sheriff, the Atlanta Police Department, and other police departments with jurisdiction where grand jurors live coordinated to ensure that safety measures were put in place to prevent harassment and violence against the grand jurors,” Shierbaum said. “The actions taken by local law enforcement to protect the grand jurors, as well as the District Attorney and her family members, require significant devotion of our capacity and represent strain on law enforcement resources to allow them to complete their civic duty without being subjected to unnecessary danger.”

We have reached out to Willis’ office for a comment on the filing, but so far, we have not gotten one back. So far, the judge has not made a ruling on the motion.

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