Graham must testify in Georgia election probe
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham must testify before a special grand jury investigating whether thenPresident Donald Trump and others illegally tried to influence the 2020 election in Georgia, a federal appeals court said Thursday.
The ruling by a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals paves the way for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to bring Graham in for questioning. She wants to ask the South Carolina Republican about phone calls he made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in the weeks after the election.
Raffensperger said Graham asked whether he had the power to reject certain absentee ballots, something Raffensperger took as a suggestion to toss out legally cast votes. Graham has dismissed that interpretation as "ridiculous."
Graham could appeal the ruling to the full appellate court. An attorney for Graham deferred comment Thursday to a spokesperson for the senator's office, which did not immediately comment on the ruling.
Graham had challenged his subpoena, saying his position as a U.S. senator protected him from having to testify in the state investigation. He has also denied wrongdoing. In a six-page order, the judges wrote that Graham "has failed to demonstrate that this approach will violate his rights under the Speech and Debate Clause."
Willis opened the investigation early last year, shortly after a recording of a January 2021 phone call between Trump and Raffensperger was made public. In that call, Trump suggested Raffensperger could "find" the votes needed to overturn his narrow loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
Willis requested a special grand* jury, saying the panel's subpoena power would allow the questioning of people who otherwise wouldn't cooperate with the investigation. She has since filed several rounds of paperwork with the court seeking to compel the testimony of close Trump advisers and associates.
Some of those associates include former White House counsel Pat Cipollone, who has testified before the special grand jury, according to a person familiar with Cipollone's testimony who spoke to The Associated Press on Thursday on condition of anonymity to discuss a private appearance. Cipollone's appearance was first reported by CNN.
Cipollone vigorously resisted efforts to undo the election and has said he did not believe there was sufficient fraud to have affected the outcome of the race won by Biden.