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A federal judge ruled on Thursday that GOP Senator Lindsey Graham must appear before the grand jury in Georgia’s Fulton County investigating allegations of efforts to try and overturn the 2020 presidential election results.
District Judge Leigh Martin May, in requiring Graham to appear before the jury, limited the scope of the testimony by the South Carolina senator.
Graham has tried to not testify.
An appeals court a few weeks ago asked May to consider modifying Graham’s subpoena after she refused to dismiss the order or issue a stay while Graham appealed.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, the lead prosecutor, said she wants to question Graham about phone calls he made to state election officials.
“(T)he Court quashes the subpoena only as to questions about Sen. Graham’s investigatory fact-finding on the telephone calls to Georgia election officials, including how such information related to his decision to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election,” May wrote Thursday in her ruling.
“The Court finds that this area of inquiry falls under the protection of the Speech or Debate Clause, which prohibits questions on legislative activity.”
May also wrote that “Graham may be questioned about any alleged efforts to encourage [Georgia] Secretary [of State Brad] Raffensperger or others to throw out ballots or otherwise alter Georgia’s election practices and procedures.”
Spectrum News reported on the phone calls in question:
Prompted by a Jan. 2, 2021, phone call between Trump and Raffensperger, during which Trump suggested Raffensperger could “find” the votes needed to overturn his narrow loss in the state, Willis and her team has said they want to ask Graham about two phone calls they say he made to Raffensperger and his staff shortly after the 2020 general election.
During those calls, Graham asked about “reexamining certain absentee ballots cast in Georgia in order to explore the possibility of a more favorable outcome for former President Donald Trump,” Willis wrote in a petition seeking to compel his testimony.
Graham also “made reference to allegations of widespread voter fraud in the November 2020 election in Georgia, consistent with public statements made by known affiliates of the Trump Campaign,” she wrote. She said in a hearing last month that Graham may be able to provide insight into the extent of any coordinated efforts to influence the results.
Graham isn’t the only one who Willis has asked to testify. White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Trump-allied lawyer Sidney Powell, and conservative lawyer L. Lin Wood Jr. have also been sought to appear.
On Wednesday, a judge ruled that Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp must testify. Rudy Guiliani already testified in mid-August.
Lindsey Graham testifying is not certain, but this move does push him closer to having to appear.
