William Barr, a former U.S. Attorney General during President Donald Trump’s first term, reportedly teamed up with Fani Willis, the Democratic Fulton County, Georgia, district attorney who filed 2020 election-related RICO charges against Trump several others, in an attempt to convict his one-time boss.

According to whistleblower Patrícia Lélis, Barr conspired with Willis to prevent Trump’s return to the White House by orchestrating her prosecution, which led to charges against Trump and 18 co-defendants for allegedly attempting to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results.

Lélis alleges that Barr participated in secret meetings in Washington, D.C., alongside Willis and others—including media personality Armstrong Williams—to hatch the plan.

Lélis, who was employed by Williams’s public relations firm in 2021, claimed to have attended “dozens” of meetings where Barr and Willis discussed various legal strategies aimed at obstructing Trump ahead of the 2024 election.

She provided Project Veritas with boxes of handwritten notes she took during these meetings, which took place between 2021 and 2023.

One meeting on September 6, 2021, included Barr and CNN commentator Shermichael Singleton, during which the group developed a media strategy to complement Congress’ January 6 investigation.

“The investigation will be focused on people close to Trump and make efforts to formally prosecute these people,” Lélis wrote, according to her interview with Project Veritas.

According to her notes, Barr identified additional targets of the investigation, including Steve Bannon, Rudy Giuliani, Stewart Rhodes, Enrique Tarrio, Jeffrey Clark, the Oath Keepers, and the Proud Boys. In the months that followed, most of these individuals received subpoenas to testify before the January 6 committee, highlighting the influence Barr apparently wielded after publicly breaking with Trump.

Photos from March 15, 2022, show Barr entering Sinclair Broadcast Group, where he met with Willis and federal prosecutor Jack Smith to discuss the impending charges Smith planned to file against Trump in Florida. Smith’s case focused on Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents that he refused to return to the National Archives.

Lélis recorded Barr predicting at the meeting that an FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago would happen “soon.” Five months later, agents raided Trump’s residence, searching for documents and security footage.

Meeting notes from January 19, 2023, indicate that Barr and Willis planned to meet again, with notes from February 27, 2023, confirming the meeting occurred. It was reportedly during this meeting that Barr advised Willis to pursue RICO charges against Trump.

“Bill Barr was like, we should bring RICO because it’s a very difficult type of charge to defend,” Lélis told Project Veritas, adding that Trump’s former attorney general then described racketeering charges as complicated and difficult to challenge under U.S. law.

Several of Trump’s co-defendants ultimately pleaded guilty in exchange for agreeing to testify against him and other alleged co-conspirators—an indication of the growing desperation within their ranks as Willis neared a potential victory.

According to Lélis, the primary objective of these meetings was to prevent Trump from returning to the presidency.

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“One thing that I understood very well is like Bill Barr and Armstrong and all the politicians too, they’re very focused like in how they go to stop Trump,” she said.

However, those efforts extended beyond the courtroom. According to Lélis, Willis reportedly collaborated with a social media team to create “anti-Trump” posts and other content aimed at bolstering the prosecution.

Acting AG Blanche Fires Back at Obama’s DOJ Criticism

Posted July 21, 2026

Former President Barack Obama sharply criticized the Trump administration this week over what he described as growing political influence inside the United States Department of Justice, prompting an aggressive response from Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche defending both the administration’s prosecutions and President Donald Trump’s authority over the executive branch.

The escalating public dispute comes as the Justice Department faces mounting scrutiny over a series of criminal investigations and indictments involving several longtime Trump critics and political adversaries, including former FBI Director James Comey.

Obama raised the issue during an interview with Stephen Colbert on CBS’ The Late Show with Stephen Colbert that aired Monday night.

“The White House shouldn’t be able to direct the attorney general to go around prosecuting whoever,” Obama said during the interview. “The idea is that the attorney general is the people’s lawyer. It’s not the president’s consigliere.”

Obama suggested the principle of DOJ independence may ultimately need to be codified into law by Congress, arguing that the justice system risks becoming politicized if presidents are perceived as directly targeting political opponents through federal prosecutions.

The comments immediately triggered pushback from the Trump administration.

White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson accused Obama of hypocrisy, arguing that his administration played a central role in the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation.

“Barack Hussein Obama is the king of weaponization,” Jackson said in a statement, referencing declassified documents related to the FBI’s Russia probe.

But the administration’s most extensive response came Wednesday from Blanche during an interview with CBS News in Phoenix.

Blanche forcefully rejected accusations that the DOJ is engaged in political retaliation and defended the president’s constitutional authority over the executive branch.

“Article Two says, ‘the executive power shall be vested in the President of the United States of America,’” Blanche said while holding a pocket copy of the Constitution during the interview. “It does not say that the Attorney General stands off to the side.”

Blanche emphasized that the attorney general serves within the executive branch and argued that presidents are fully entitled to direct priorities involving law enforcement, immigration, drugs, and national security.

“To the extent that President Trump calls me and says that he thinks we have a problem in this country, whether it’s the scourge of drugs, illegal immigration, every American wants him to do that,” Blanche said. “And he should.”

The acting attorney general also dismissed accusations that the DOJ is pursuing politically motivated cases against Trump critics.

“We are absolutely doing nothing but what we should be doing at the Department of Justice,” Blanche said. “I wake up with a very clean conscience every morning.”

The public clash comes amid multiple high-profile investigations involving Trump adversaries.

Most notably, Comey was recently indicted after prosecutors alleged a 2025 Instagram post featuring seashells arranged to form the numbers “86 47” constituted a threat against Trump, the 47th president. Prosecutors argue “86” is commonly understood slang meaning “to eliminate” or “get rid of.”

Blanche defended the case, arguing threats against the president must be treated seriously given recent assassination attempts and escalating political extremism.

Last year, Trump publicly urged then-Attorney General Pam Bondi to pursue prosecutions against Comey, James, and Sen. Adam Schiff, writing on social media that “JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED.”

Blanche declined to discuss private conversations with Trump when asked whether the president personally directed prosecutions.

“But rest assured,” Blanche said, “he has much better, bigger and important things to do than to worry about me doing my job.”

Blanche also turned Democrats’ criticism back against them by pointing to the multiple criminal prosecutions Trump himself faced before returning to office, including cases brought by state prosecutors in New York and Georgia as well as federal investigations overseen by Special Counsel Jack Smith.

“So I welcome criticism. Let’s go,” Blanche said. “But if you’re sitting in a glass house, you ought not throw stones.”