A federal appeals court granted a temporary stay on an order requiring Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) to testify before a Fulton County, Georgia, special grand jury as part of an inquiry into efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in the state.
The decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit on Sunday will send the case back to district court in Georgia to decide whether Graham is entitled to a “partial quashal or modification of subpoena” based on protections granted through the speech or debate clause of the Constitution.
LINDSEY GRAHAM TESTIMONY ‘CRUCIAL’ TO 2020 ELECTION INVESTIGATION, ATLANTA-AREA DA SAYS
Graham was scheduled to appear before the grand jury on Tuesday. In denying the bid by Graham to throw out the subpoena, U.S. District Judge Leigh Martin May said on Monday that the senator could still be questioned even if the speech and debate clause of the Constitution for lawmakers protected him.
NEW – 11th Circuit temporarily blocks Sen. Lindsey Graham from testifying in Fulton County Special Grand Jury and sends Graham’s motion to quash subpoena back to district court to further discuss potential Speech or Debate protections. #gapol pic.twitter.com/CTKEx3TUOn
— stephen fowler (@stphnfwlr) August 21, 2022
“The mere possibility that some lines of inquiry could implicate Senator Graham’s immunity under the Speech or Debate Clause does not justify quashing the subpoena in its entirety because there are considerable areas of inquiry which are clearly not legislative in nature,” May ruled, per CNBC.
The same judge on Friday denied Graham’s request to delay his grand jury testimony while his appeal plays out.
The grand jury was impaneled as part of an investigation led by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, examining whether Trump or his allies committed crimes regarding the 2020 election.
Graham made at least two calls to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and his staff after the 2020 election, according to a court filing from Willis. The senator asked about reexamining certain absentee ballots “to explore the possibility of a more favorable outcome for former President Donald Trump.”
Graham’s legal team argued the senator “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,” according to the Associated Press.
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Graham’s testimony is considered “crucial” to the investigation “not simply because he possesses necessary and material information but also because he is expected to provide information regarding additional sources of relevant information,” the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office argued Friday.
The investigation began last year after audio surfaced of a call in which then-President Trump stressed to Raffensperger the need to “find” 11,780 votes, enough to reverse his Georgia election loss. Trump has rejected claims of wrongdoing and upheld the call as “perfect.” Other people in Trump’s orbit of interest to Willis include Rudy Giuliani, whose lawyers said he has been informed he is a target of the criminal 2020 election investigation.
