A new whistleblower claim is raising eyebrows in political and legal circles, alleging that former U.S. Attorney General William Barr privately coordinated with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in developing racketeering charges against former President Donald Trump.
The accusations come from Patrícia Lélis, who says she attended multiple closed-door meetings between Barr, Willis, and other political and media figures from 2021 to 2023. Lélis, who worked for media personality Armstrong Williams’s public relations firm at the time, claims these discussions focused on legal and media strategies to prevent Trump from returning to the White House.
According to Lélis, Barr was present at “dozens” of strategy sessions, including one on September 6, 2021, with CNN commentator Shermichael Singleton. She alleges the group discussed targeting Trump’s allies—naming Steve Bannon, Rudy Giuliani, Stewart Rhodes, Enrique Tarrio, Jeffrey Clark, and several organizations linked to the January 6 events. Many of these individuals later received subpoenas from the House committee investigating the Capitol riot.
Lélis says she provided Project Veritas with boxes of handwritten notes from these meetings. In them, she describes Barr as actively suggesting legal pathways to make cases more difficult for Trump to fight. She also claims Barr met with Willis and Special Counsel Jack Smith at Sinclair Broadcast Group’s offices in March 2022 to discuss federal charges involving classified documents. Barr allegedly predicted an FBI raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate months before it happened.
One meeting in early 2023, according to Lélis’s notes, was where Barr recommended that Willis pursue racketeering charges under Georgia’s RICO statute. “It’s a very difficult type of charge to defend,” Barr allegedly said, emphasizing that the complexity of racketeering cases makes them challenging to beat in court.
Neither Barr nor Willis has publicly confirmed or denied the claims, and the allegations remain unverified. Still, if accurate, they suggest a level of behind-the-scenes coordination between former Trump officials and his political opponents that would likely ignite a major political firestorm.
The Fulton County RICO case against Trump and 18 others remains ongoing, tied to accusations that they conspired to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results.