Trump Prosecutor in Georgia Rebukes Critics in Speech to Black Church Group

With her prosecution of former President Donald J. Trump bottled up in a state appeals court fight, the Georgia district attorney who brought the case pushed back at her conservative critics on Thursday, appearing to single out recent remarks made about her by Mr. Trump’s co-defendant Rudolph W. Giuliani.

At a recent stop on the ReAwaken America tour, a right-wing Christian event, Mr. Giuliani referred to the district attorney, Fani T. Willis, as a “ho,” using a stylized version of the word “whore” borrowed from the African American vernacular. He also said he chose to deliberately mispronounce Ms. Willis’s first name as “Fanny,” as opposed to the proper pronunciation, “FAHN-ee.”

Ms. Willis spoke on Thursday to leaders of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, who were meeting at a church in Marietta, Ga.

“I’ve lived the experience of a Black woman who is attacked and over-sexualized,” she said. “See, I’m so tired of hearing these idiots call my name as ‘Fanny,’ in a way to attempt to humiliate me. Because, like silly schoolboys, the name reminds them of a woman’s rear, of her behind.”

Though Ms. Willis did not refer specifically to Mr. Giuliani, the former New York City mayor, she was introduced to the crowd by Bishop Reginald T. Jackson, the presiding prelate for the A.M.E. church in Georgia, who made it plain that Mr. Giuliani was on his mind. “You’ve got somebody who used to be referred to as America’s mayor,” Bishop Jackson said, “who’s now become America’s moron in chief.”

The volley of insults came at a moment of frustration among many Democrats about the fact that Ms. Willis’s case against Mr. Trump would not reach the trial phase until after the November election. Mr. Trump, Mr. Giuliani and 17 others were indicted in August by a grand jury in Fulton County over their efforts to overturn Mr. Trump’s 2020 election loss. Four of the defendants later pleaded guilty.