"Sen. Graham, raise your right hand."
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Judge denies Sen. Lindsey Graham’s bid to quash subpoena
A federal judge on Monday denied Sen. Lindsey Graham’s bid to throw out a subpoena for his testimony before a special grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia, as part of its investigation into possible criminal election interference by former President Donald Trump and his allies in 2020.
The court rejected Graham’s contention that the subpoena should be quashed because of his status as a high-ranking government official, among other arguments. The subpoena requires the South Carolina Republican, who is a witness in the probe, to appear before the grand jury on Aug. 23.
District Attorney Fani Willis, who is conducting the investigation, “has shown extraordinary circumstances and a special need for Senator Graham’s testimony” about “alleged attempts to influence or disrupt” Georgia’s elections, Judge Leigh Martin May wrote in Monday’s order in U.S. District Court in South Carolina.
Graham’s office said the senator plans to appeal the ruling. His attorneys are reviewing the ruling, their spokesperson Beth Huffman of the law firm Nelson Mullins told CNBC.
The district attorney wants to question Graham about phone calls he made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in the weeks after the November 2020 election. Graham’s lawyers argued that those calls were “quintessentially legislative factfinding” by a sitting U.S. senator, and as such are protected by the speech and debate clause of the Constitution.
