Federal judge rules that Senator Graham must testify before a special grand jury in the election investigation Graham’s lawyers argued that he is immune from testifying because Graham is protected by congressional privilege.
ATLANTA – A federal judge ruled Monday that U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham must testify before a special purpose grand jury looking into possible election interference in the 2020 presidential election.
Graham said he will continue to fight it and his legal team plans to appeal the sentence, but prosecutors say the grand jury needs to hear about three phone calls.
The Fulton County district attorney said Graham called Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger twice in the days after the election.
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The grand jury wants to know if those phone calls were in any way related to former President Donald Trump’s call asking Raffensperger to fund more votes.
“Look, all I want to do is find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we had because we won that election,” Trump said during the call.
Graham and his lawyers are fighting a subpoena to testify.
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Channel 2 Action News was the only television station outside the federal courthouse in downtown Atlanta Wednesday as Graham’s team entered to present their arguments.
Graham’s lawyers insist the constitution protects him from having to testify.
“Sen. Graham went to federal court and relied on the Constitution to argue that, “Hey, you can’t call me to testify because what I would be talking about would be privileged information as part of my legislative duties.” said
But the judge rejected that argument on Monday.
Graham’s office said they disagreed with the judge’s interpretation of the Constitution, and his lawyers say his calls to Raffensperger were clearly part of his legislative duties.
Graham is expected to appear before a grand jury on August 23.
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