(Headline USA) Part of an Atlanta courthouse was evacuated on Friday after a package or letter with white powder was delivered to the office of disgraced Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. However, law enforcement doesn’t seem to be taking the incident too seriously, according to reports.
Firefighters determined 30 minutes after a hazardous materials response began that the powder was a starch or salt and not harmful, said Atlanta Fire Rescue Battalion Chief Ronald Slatton. The courthouse was reopened shortly afterward.
Four people who complained of headaches were taken to a hospital as a precaution and the third floor of the sprawling Fulton County courthouse complex was evacuated, according to Slatton.
Slatton said he didn’t know who the letter was addressed to, only that it arrived at the district attorney’s office. When asked about a motive, he replied, “That’s for the law enforcement.”
It’s not clear if anyone is investigating the incident as a potential crime. Officer Aaron Fix, a spokesperson for the Atlanta Police Department, referred comment back to Atlanta Fire Rescue. The Fulton County Sheriff’s Office, which oversees courthouse security, isn’t investigating, said spokesperson Natalie Ammons.
Willis has become the butt of Republican jokes in recent months over her shoddy casework in her politically motivated prosecution against Donald Trump.
An elected Democrat, Willis won indictments against Trump and 18 others in August 2023, using Georgia’s anti-racketeering law to accuse them of participating in a scheme to illegally try to overturn the 2020 election.
However, a state appeals court in December removed Willis from the case, citing an “appearance of impropriety” related to a romantic relationship Willis had with special prosecutor Nathan Wade, whom she had hired to lead the case. Willis is asking the Georgia Supreme Court to reverse her disqualification.
More recently, Willis’s office was fined more than $54,000 in attorneys’ fees, and ordered to turn over her Trump case documents, after a judge found that her office violated Georgia’s Open Records Act.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Rachel Krause found earlier this month that Fani’s failures to comply with the records law “were intentional, not done in good faith, and were substantially groundless and vexatious.”
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
