Sen. Lindsey Graham is challenging a subpoena to testify before a Fulton County, Georgia, special grand jury investigating attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in the state. Graham’s legal objections to the subpoena basically boil down to “Suck it, I’m a U.S. senator,” although, of course, more legal verbiage is involved.
The investigation is being conducted by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, seeking answers on whether Donald Trump or any of his allies broke the law as they tried to get the results of the election reversed. Graham made at least two phone calls to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger or his staff, asking them to take another look at absentee ballots “to explore the possibility of a more favorable outcome for former President Donald Trump,” Willis wrote in a court filing.
A Fulton County judge previously ordered Graham to testify, but he’s trying to get his objection moved to a federal court.
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According to an answering court filing by Graham’s lawyers, he “was engaged in quintessentially legislative factfinding—both to help him form election-related legislation, including in his role as then-Chair of the Judiciary Committee, and to help inform his vote to certify the election.”
Yeah, sure. He just so happened to be engaged in quintessentially legislative fact-finding in one of the closest states, which involved contacting the exact same state official Trump called in an effort to pressure to “find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have.”
The U.S. Constitution, Graham’s lawyers say, “provides absolute protection against inquiry into Senator Graham’s legislative acts.” Or, they want the court to agree, his coup attempts disguised as legislative acts. That’s not all, though. “Sovereign immunity,” they say, prohibits a local prosecutor from summoning a U.S. senator “to face a state ad hoc investigatory body”—or, in translation, “Our client is more important than you.” They also argue that Willis hasn’t shown “the ‘extraordinary circumstances’ necessary to order a high-ranking federal official to testify.”
This is the “DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM??? I AM A UNITED STATES SENATOR” of legal filings combined with the strenuous whitewashing of a coup attempt into a non-extraordinary circumstance of simple legislative fact-finding.
Rep. Jody Hice has similarly tried to get out of his subpoena to testify in Willis’ investigation, with a federal judge rejecting his attempt to quash the subpoena. Graham’s subpoena calls on him to appear on Aug. 23, so he’s asking the judge for an expedited decision.
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