Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) lost his bid to block a federal court order demanding he deliver grand jury testimony to the Fulton County criminal investigation into efforts by former President Donald Trump and his allies to challenge the 2020 election results.
An appeals court panel Thursday rejected the senator’s emergency request to stall compliance with a subpoena for the Fulton County inquiry. Graham is appealing the federal court decision and had requested it get blocked while his appeal plays out in court.
LINDSEY GRAHAM DENIED MOTION TO QUASH FULTON COUNTY SUBPOENA, SCORES PARTIAL WIN
“Senator Graham has failed to demonstrate that he is likely to succeed on the merits of his appeal,” the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals panel wrote in an unanimous ruling Thursday.
Although he can’t get out of showing up to deliver testimony, Graham can try to issue objections to certain questions, the panel ruled. It emphasized that the prior federal court ruling allowed the subpoena against him to remain in effect, but deemed questions about Graham’s decision-making process off-limits.
Graham could still ask the Supreme Court to block the subpoena, per CNBC.
Fulton County prosecutors, led by District Attorney Fani Willis, have been eager to learn more about calls Graham had with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in the weeks after the 2020 election, among other points of inquiry. They subpoenaed him for testimony earlier this summer, leading to a legal challenge from Graham’s lawyers.
Graham argued that the calls were part of his “legislative fact-finding” mission and that the debate clause in the Constitution insulates him from such subpoena demands. The debate clause shields legislators from certain law enforcement activity when participating in legislative duties.
“Even assuming that the Clause protects informal legislative investigations, the district court’s approach ensures that Senator Graham will not be questioned about such investigations,” the appeals court panel wrote.
“As the court determined, there is significant dispute about whether his phone calls with Georgia election officials were legislative investigations at all. The court’s partial quashal enabled a process through which that dispute can be resolved,” it continued.
Willis began the investigation last year following audio that surfaced between Trump and Raffensperger and which the former president stressed the need to “find” 11,780 votes, enough to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory in Georgia. A special grand jury in the matter was impaneled in May.
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The inquiry has scored a litany of high-profile testimonies, including from former Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) and former Trump White House Counsel Pat Cipollone, as reported by CNN.
