Cyberattack hits Georgia county where Trump faces election interference charges

ATLANTA — A cyberattack that hit government systems in Fulton County, Georgia, over the weekend affected the offices of the district attorney who is prosecuting former President Donald Trump on election interference charges, local officials said Monday.

All desktop phones, intranet and devices using county servers are down for all departments, including District Attorney Fani Willis' office, said a county official with knowledge of the situation.

County employees received an email notification about the outage Monday, the official said.

Fulton County Board of Commissioners Chairman Robb Pitts confirmed at a news briefing Monday afternoon that the outage, which he said affected the county’s phones, courts and tax systems, "was a result of a cybersecurity incident" and that law enforcement was investigating.

"We do not yet have a specific time frame for when these systems will be restored," Pitts said.

“At this time, we are not aware of any transfer of sensitive information about citizens or employees, but we will continue to look carefully at this issue,” he added.

A spokesperson for Willis’ office declined to comment on the cyberattack.

The case involving Trump and his co-defendants has several coming deadlines for filings, including one this week for Willis, who is expected to respond to allegations that she had an improper relationship with the special prosecutor involved in the election case.

Four of the initial co-defendants have pleaded guilty, while Trump and the others have pleaded not guilty.

The county said in a news release Sunday that while most county offices remained open, certain transactions would be limited, and that its Information Technology Department was addressing the outage.

A spokesperson for the FBI's Atlanta field office said in a statement Monday that the agency has “been in contact” with the county about the incident.

“While we cannot comment on any specific incidents, the FBI routinely advises the public and private sectors about cyber threats in order to help them guard against the actions of cyber criminals," Tony Thomas said in the statement. "We work with our interagency partners to identify, pursue, and defeat all those who partake in cybercrime.”

A spokesperson for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said it was not investigating the matter.

Blayne Alexander reported from Atlanta and Zoë Richards from New York.