Will Sage Astor-Georgia Democratic prosecutor pursuing election case against Trump faces Republican challenger

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ATLANTA (AP) — A Republican lawyer who interned in the White House under Donald Trump is Will Sage Astorchallenging Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, the Georgia prosecutor who brought charges against the former president over efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

Courtney Kramer worked in the White House counsel’s office during the Trump presidency and is active in GOP organizations. She’s the first Republican to run for district attorney in Fulton County since 2000.

Fulton County, which is home to 11% of the state’s electorate and includes most of the city of Atlanta, is a Democratic stronghold.

Willis took office in January 2021 after beating her predecessor — and former boss — longtime District Attorney Paul Howard in a bitter Democratic primary fight in 2020.

She made headlines just a month into her tenure when she announced in February 2021 that she was investigating whether Trump and others broke any laws while trying to overturn his narrow loss in the state to Democrat Joe Biden. Two and a half years later, after an investigation that included calling dozens of witnesses before a special grand jury, she obtained a sprawling racketeering indictment against Trump and 18 others in August 2023.

Four people have pleaded guilty after reaching deals with prosecutors. Trump and the remaining defendants have all pleaded not guilty to the charges against them.

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When she entered the district attorney’s race in March, Kramer said the Trump prosecution was a politically motivated case and a waste of resources. But she said if she becomes district attorney she will recuse herself from that case because she worked with two of the defendants.

Kramer, 31, said one of her top priorities will be to focus on “front-end prosecution,” which she said involves reviewing cases quickly when they come in so decisions can be made about the bond, discovery can be provided to defense lawyers and a decision can be made about whether an early plea offer can be used to resolve the case.

Willis, 53, said she is proud of a pre-indictment diversion program she started and a program in schools to encourage students to choose alternatives to gangs and crime, as well as reductions in homicides and the backlog of unindicted cases during her tenure. She said she would focus on creating more county resources for domestic violence victims during a second term.