An Alabama-based man who threatened Fani Willis over her indictment of President Donald Trump has been sentenced to two years in prison. Arthur Ray Hanson II, of Huntsville, Alabama, sent threats to Willis via voicemail a week before Willis indicted Trump in August of 2023.
“If you think you gonna take a mugshot of my President Donald Trump and it’s gonna be ok, you gonna find out that after you take that mugshot, some bad (expletive) probably gonna happen to you,” Hanson said on the voicemail.
“I’m warning you right now before you (expletive) up your life and get hurt real bad, whether you got a (expletive) badge or not ain’t gonna help you none. You gonna get (expletive) up you keep (expletive) with my president. Watch it when you’re going to the car at night, when you’re going into your house, watch everywhere that you’re going.”
Hanson was charged with two counts of transmitting interstate threats to injure Willis and Sheriff Patrick Labat.
U.S. District Judge J.P. Boulee in Atlanta called Hanson’s behavior “appalling” before sentencing him to two years in prison followed by three years of supervision and a $7,500 fine.
Hanson apologized for his actions saying, “I’m truly sorry for making those phone calls. That is not who I am.”
Willis shared that she has received more threats and racial harassment since taking on this explosive case.
“(The threats) come in through my phone line, they come into the magistrate court, they come in through written letter, they come in through text message,” Willis said while speaking with the Fulton County Board of Commissioners.
In July, Willis received a racially-charged email that read, “Fani Willis-Corrupt (N-word). The message in the email read, “You are going to fail, you Jim Crow Democrat w–e.”
To add more protection and increase staff, Willis asked Fulton County Board of Commissioners to allow her to designate more of her staff as “personal” employees. This would allow her to hire more team members and increase salaries.
The highly-publicized case centers around the 2020 election probe when Trump asked former Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger during a phone call to help him secure over 11,000 votes, the amount in which he trailed Joe Biden in Georgia.
During a recorded call that took place on Jan. 2, 2021, Trump told Raffensperger, “All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state.”