Fani T. Willis, the district attorney in Fulton County, Ga., went before a federal judge on Tuesday in downtown Atlanta. Not as a prosecutor, but as a victim.

In August 2023, Ms. Willis, who is leading the state election interference case against former President Donald J. Trump and 14 of his allies, was the subject of a threatening voice mail message that a white man from Huntsville, Ala., Arthur Ray Hanson II, left on a Fulton County customer service line.

Mr. Hanson used racist epithets against Ms. Willis, who is Black, issued warnings like “Watch it when you’re going to the car, OK?” and disparaged her appearance. In a separate call, Mr. Hanson also threatened the Fulton County sheriff, Patrick Labat.

Mr. Hanson, 59, pleaded guilty this summer to one charge of making interstate threats, and on Tuesday, at his sentencing hearing, Ms. Willis and Sheriff Labat, who is also Black, had their chance to speak to the judge before he made his decision.

Ms. Willis spoke of the “vile threat” that Mr. Hanson made. She spoke of the fear it stoked in her children and in her father. She spoke of the multitude of threats she has received since Mr. Trump’s indictment in August 2023, many of which included racist insults.

Noting that young men in Mr. Hanson’s family or orbit had come to support him, she said: “I hope they wholly reject the racism that he showed to myself and the sheriff.”