Lindsey Graham fails to wriggle out of testifying in Georgia 2020 election probe

Joan McCarter

Daily Kos Staff

Monday August 15, 2022 · 7:16 AM PDT

2022/08/15 · 07:16

WASHINGTON, DC - NOVEMBER 6: (L-R) President Donald Trump shakes hands with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) during an event about judicial confirmations in the East Room of the White House on November 6, 2019 in Washington, DC. More than 150 of the president's federal judicial nominees have been confirmed by the Republican-controlled Senate. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) — Partners in crime.

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Sen. Lindsey Graham’s efforts to squirm out of accountability for his role in Donald Trump’s coup attempt have failed. The South Carolina Republican has been ordered to testify before a grand jury in Georgia about his role in pressuring election officials there to overturn the 2020 presidential election in the state.

Earlier this month, Graham challenged a subpoena to testify before a Fulton County special grand jury that is investigating the Trump team’s efforts to subvert the election. Graham asserted that he’s a U.S. senator and is thus immune from having to answer for his effort. Nope, says U.S. District Court Judge Leigh Martin May. “[T]he Court finds that the District Attorney has shown extraordinary circumstances and a special need for Senator Graham’s testimony on issues relating to alleged attempts to influence or disrupt the lawful administration of Georgia’s 2022 elections.”

Graham was among the first to jump into the fray in the days after the November 2020 election, including calling Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger twice, according to Raffensperger, to try to get him to illegally throw out legal vote-by-mail ballots and overturn the election. President Biden pulled out a 12,000 vote win in Georgia, or to be more exact, 11,780 votes. Graham was allegedly echoing Trump’s notorious plea to Raffensperger to “find” those votes to toss.

Monday, Aug 15, 2022 · 2:55:31 PM +00:00 · Joan McCarter

And Graham is going to appeal. According to his lawyers, Graham was just doing his “due diligence” ahead of his vote to certify the electoral count in making those calls. Never mind that they happened in mid-November before the state had even certified the election and that Graham wouldn’t be voting to certify until January.

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Last month, a Fulton County judge ordered Graham to testify, but he challenged that ruling, attempting to get his objection moved to a federal court. Graham’s lawyers argued that the U.S. Constitution “provides absolute protection against inquiry into Senator Graham’s legislative acts.”

They further argued that “Sovereign immunity” prohibits a local prosecutor from summoning a U.S. Senator “to face a state ad hoc investigatory body” and argued that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis didn’t now show “the ‘extraordinary circumstances’ necessary to order a high-ranking federal official to testify.”

High-ranking, my ass, Judge Martin May said in many more measured words. “In sum, the Court finds that there are considerable areas of potential grand jury inquiry falling outside the Speech or
Debate Clause’s protections,” she wrote. “Additionally, sovereign immunity fails to shield Senator Graham from testifying before the Special Purpose Grand Jury.”

The case goes back to the Superior Court of Fulton County, Graham’s federal court appeal lifeline severed.

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