Judge denies Sen. Lindsey Graham’s bid to quash subpoena in Trump election probe in Georgia

U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) speaks during a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., March 22, 2022.

A federal judge denied Lindsey Graham's bid to throw out a subpoena for his testimony before a special grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia, as part of its investigation into possible criminal election interference by former President Donald Trump and his allies in 2020

Graham had argued that the subpoena should be thrown out because he was a high-ranking government official. The South Carolina Republican is required to testify before the grand jury.

The District Attorney has shown extraordinary circumstances and a special need for Senator Graham to testify about attempts to influence or disrupt Georgia's elections.

The senator is going to appeal the ruling, according to his office. His attorneys are looking at the ruling, according to his spokeswoman.

Graham made calls to Georgia's Secretary of State in the weeks after the election. The calls are protected by the Speech and Debate Clause of the Constitution.

Even if that clause protected Graham from testifying about the calls, he could still be questioned about other issues relevant to the investigation.

There are many areas of inquiry which are clearly not legislative in nature and 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.

Graham's office defended the calls to Raffensperger and accused the judge of ignoring legal precedents.

The speech or debate clause of the constitution prevents a local official from questioning a senator about how he did his job. The statement said that Senator Graham voted to certify the election in this location.

Although the district court acknowledged that Speech or Debate may protect some of Senator Graham's activities, she still ignored the constitutional text and binding Supreme Court precedent, so Senator Graham plans to appeal to the 11th Circuit.

Four days before Congress was going to confirm Biden's electoral victory, Trump called Raffensperger.

Trump told Raffensperger to get enough votes to overturn Biden's win.

Trump said he wanted to find 11,780 votes.