 |
| Photo Credit: AP. |
A federal appeals court Thursday dismissed a request by Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican Senator from South Carolina to block his testimony at a Georgia election probe investigating alleged interference in the 2020 election in the state.
A
three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit ruled
against the senator who has been fighting a subpoena to testify before a Fulton
County, Georgia special grand jury investigating the matter.
Mr. Graham
had argued early this month before the appeals court that he was shielded from
testimony due to constitutional protections for lawmakers and noted that his
questioning was part of his oversight duties as a senator.
Prosecutors said
Graham made phone calls to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and
his staff in the weeks following Trump’s election loss to President Joe Biden.
“Senator
Graham has failed to demonstrate that this approach will violate his rights
under the Speech and Debate Clause,” the appeals court ruled on Thursday, The Hill
reported.
Fulton
County District Attorney Fani Willis opened the investigation last year and a
special grand jury held its sitting this year at her request. Willis filed
petitions that sought to compel testimony from seven Trump advisers and
associates.
“The court
noted that Senator Graham may still seek to assert his Speech and Debate Clause
privilege if there is a dispute about whether a concrete question implicates
his factfinding relating to certification,” the appeals panel wrote in its
ruling, according to The Hill.
In September
Graham told U.S. District Judge Leigh Martin May in an argument that a
provision of the Constitution provides absolute protection against a senator
being questioned about legislative acts but the judge found there are
“considerable areas of potential grand jury inquiry” that fall outside that
provision’s scope, according to The Associated Press.
Graham also
said “sovereign immunity” protects a senator from being summoned by a state
prosecutor but the judge rejected that line of argument.
Graham also
argued that Willis, a Democrat, had not demonstrated extraordinary
circumstances necessary to compel testimony from a high-ranking official, an
argument the judge disagreed, and determined that Willis has shown
“extraordinary circumstances and a special need” for Graham’s testimony on
issues related to an alleged attempt to influence or disrupt the election in
Georgia.
Graham’s
lawyers said the senator was making inquiries that were part of his legislative
duties, as it relates to certification of the vote and to the proposal of
election-related legislation, according to The Associated Press.
Graham
“questioned Secretary Raffensperger and his staff about reexamining certain
absentee ballots cast in Georgia in order to explore the possibility of a more
favorable outcome for former President Donald Trump,” in calls make after Trump
was defeated in the 2020 general election, Willis wrote in a petition,
according to The Associated Press.
Willis wrote
that 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.”