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Donald Trump is airing a television ad in Atlanta, and other TV markets, that attacks the Fulton County district attorney who could soon charge the former president with his fourth criminal indictment.
A Trump campaign aide told NBC News the one-minute political ad will air in Atlanta, New York and Washington, D.C., as well as nationally. Trump is already facing charges in New York and Washington, and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is expected to present charges in her investigation related to Trump to a grand jury in Atlanta next week.
The new ad, released by the campaign on Sunday, accuses Willis of previous wrongdoing. It also names attorneys who’ve already brought charges against Trump, including Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and special counsel Jack Smith.
Trump's campaign has advertising booked in Atlanta from Wednesday through Sunday, according to the advertising tracking firm AdImpact.
In an email Wednesday, Willis instructed her staff to avoid commenting or posting on social media about the ad.
“You may not comment in any way on the ad or any of the negativity that may be expressed against me, your colleagues, this office in coming days, weeks or months,” she wrote in the email first reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and obtained by NBC News through an open records request.
Willis also slammed the ad as “derogatory and false” and urged her staff to remain focused. “We have a job to do,” she wrote. “I am not concerned with the calls, emails, or ads and you should not concern yourself with them.”
On the heels of his third indictment, Trump upped his fiery rhetoric on Tuesday during remarks in Windham, New Hampshire. “I’m sorry, I won’t be able to go to Iowa today. I won’t be able to go to New Hampshire today because I’m sitting in a courtroom on bulls--- because his attorney general charged me with something,” Trump said in an apparent reference to Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Garland appointed a special counsel to investigate Trump, and that special counsel, Jack Smith, is the one who is prosecuting Trump. In June, Garland reiterated Smith's "independence" as special counsel.
As new charges in different cases have been leveled against Trump, he has leveraged the indictments for fundraising purposes. Since Trump was charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States last week in Washington, D.C., his campaign has blasted out over a dozen fundraising emails centered around the new indictment.
An NBC News Political Unit analysis of Trump fundraising around his first two indictments found those time periods corresponded with a significant uptick in fundraising by Trump's political organization.
The former president, who has pleaded not guilty in the all the cases where he’s been charged, said over the weekend that he touts his indictments like a badge of honor, arguing they have only improved his standing with Republican voters.
“We need one more indictment to close out this election, one more indictment and this election is closed out.”