A Georgia federal judge has rejected South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham’s bid to bar a Fulton County grand jury from asking him about phone calls he made to Georgia election officials at the time former president Donald Trump was pushing to overturn his 2020 election loss there.
In a ruling issued on Thursday, US District Judge Leigh Martin May said Mr Graham cannot invoke the US Constitution’s “Speech or Debate” clause to prevent prosecutors or grand jurors from asking about a call he held with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in the weeks following the 2020 election.
According to Mr Raffensperger, Mr Graham asked him if there was a way to retroactively throw out lawfully cast and counted postal ballots from areas where President Joe Biden recieved a significant number of votes.
The South Carolina senator has said his conversation with Mr Raffensperger was part of his legislative duties, citing his vote to certify the 2020 election on 6 January 2021. But Judge May rejected that argument, writing in her opinion that “Speech or Debate” clause requires her to partially quash the subpoena for Mr Graham’s testimony regarding “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”.
“The Court finds that this area of inquiry falls under the protection of the Speech or Debate Clause, which prohibits questions on legislative activity. As to the other categories, the Court finds that they are not legislative, and the Speech or Debate Clause does not apply to them. As such, Senator Graham may be questioned about any alleged efforts to encourage Secretary Raffensperger or others to throw out ballots or otherwise alter Georgia’s election practices and procedures,” she wrote.
Judge May also said Mr Graham may be questioned on any “communications and coordination” between him and Mr Trump’s 2020 campaign, as well as the senator’s “public statements related to Georgia’s 2020 elections”.
The decision to allow Mr Graham to give evidence before the Fulton County, Georgia grand jury is likely to be appealed to the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
