Paul Howard (from left), Fani Willis, and Christian Wise Smith. (Photos: Courtesy and ALM)

Embattled Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard joined forces with his third-place challenger Monday at a joint news conference where the DA referred to primary winner Fani Willis as "our opponent" in Howard's quest for a seventh term in office.

Christian Wise Smith, a former employee of Howard's office, who placed third in the June 9 primary with 23% of the vote, opened the morning news conference with a full-throated endorsement of his former boss, saying Howard made significant commitments to him to secure his endorsement. Howard placed second in the primary with 60,197 votes, nearly 35%. Willis, who rose to become executive assistant DA during her 16-year tenure working for Howard, garnered 73,714 votes, more than 42%.

At a time when a call to punish and end police use of excessive force has spurred hundreds of thousands of people to take to the streets in demonstrations across the nation, Howard and Wise Smith signaled that they intend to defeat Willis by claiming she is a pawn of police.

Wise Smith contended that endorsements of Willis by an Atlanta police union and former Atlanta city council member Mary Norwood, a Republican who was twice narrowly defeated for Atlanta mayor, were both divisive and regressive. He said Willis "decided that it is more important to be endorsed by Mary Norwood and the police union instead of the people."

Said Howard: "We have to win this election because our opponent —  I'm saying our opponent — and the community's opponent, has decided to make a deal with the Atlanta police union. The Fulton County DA's office should be an independent office. It should not be bought and sold to … the Atlanta police."

Wise Smith said Howard "has embraced the movement of the people" and agreed to commitments that include a death penalty ban, decriminalizing drug possession, striping marijuana convictions from criminal records, creating an internal police brutality unit, and hosting monthly community meetings.

Howard affirmed those commitments as things "Christian and I are going to do." Wise Smith worked nearly six years as an assistant city solicitor general and less than a year for Howard as an assistant district attorney before deciding to run for office. He formerly served as Atlanta city council member Natalyn Archibong's chief of staff.

Wise Smith, who allied closely with the  Black Lives Matter movement during the campaign and ran on the slogan "The Revolution is Now," said he has created the Social Justice Alliance for prosecutors committed to ending police brutality and eliminating "racist, oppressive and abusive practices" in the justice system. Howard, he said, is the first prosecutor to join.

Howard said that he and a group of citizens will ask Gov. Brian Kemp for a study commission aimed at ending the death penalty in Georgia. Howard also said "Christian and I" intend to seek a single court order to secure the release of as many as 100,000 individuals currently serving time for possessing small amounts of illegal drugs. The district attorney also promised that by July 15, he will have a new unit in place to promote "all the things we are doing in the DA's office" and confirmed his promise to establish a separate unit "just to focus on police brutality."

On Monday, Willis accused Howard of "cutting political deals in a desperate attempt to cling to a job he's held for almost a quarter-century." After more than two decades in power, Howard "believes the office serves his interest instead of an office that serves the people of Fulton County," she said.  

Willis said she met with Wise Smith "and made clear that I was not offering jobs to anyone for support, and that my commitment to him, and to the community as a whole, is to bring integrity to the office and to treat everyone fairly. I also made it clear to him that if he wants to see reform of a broken office that my opponent has led for 24 years, he should support me."

Willis also said she "will hold police officers who violate the law accountable, just like I will in every case that comes to my office."

Willis, who if elected will become the first female African American attorney to hold the post, also said, "Two men will not mislead voters—one disqualified and the other unqualified—from making a fresh start."

Wise Smith said that when he met separately with Willis after the primary, "It was never discussed [that] if she won she would hire me." He also said he never talked to Howard about going back to work in the DA's office either.

Wise Smith's endorsement comes just two weeks after Howard announced that he filed felony charges against two Atlanta police officers in the shooting death of Rayshard Brooks. 

Howard charged Atlanta police officer Garrett Rolfe with felony murder and multiple counts of aggravated assault, violating his oath of office, and first-degree criminal damage to property. Rolfe was also charged with failing to render medical aid after shooting Brooks. Howard charged officer Devin Brosnan with aggravated assault, violating his oath of office and failure to render medical aid.

A week before the primary, Howard filed multiple felony charges against six Atlanta police officers for the violent arrest of two Atlanta college students who were tasered and pulled from their car during demonstrations over the death of George Floyd. 

But despite those prosecutions, Wise Smith's endorsement could prove significant to the embattled Howard. Howard's campaign for reelection has been dogged by a pending 12-count complaint by the state Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission and a parallel criminal probe by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. The ethics complaint, pending since April, accused the DA of multiple violations of state campaign finance disclosure laws.  

Public officials and candidates for public office are required to disclose their personal financial holdings annually. But the complaint alleges Howard failed to report that he was the CEO of two nonprofit organizations or that he was paid a total of $140,000 between 2015 and 2019 by one of them, People Partnering for Progress, according to federal tax returns attached to the complaint.

Howard also is a defendant in two ongoing federal lawsuits by former female staff members who have accused him of multiple instances of sexual harassment and job retaliation when alleged overtures were rebuffed. 

Howard has denied the allegations