A federal judge on Friday denied a request from Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., to delay his testimony before a special grand jury in Georgia as part of an investigation of possible interference in the state's 2020 election by former President Donald Trump and his associates.
Graham had sought to quash a court-ordered subpoena for his testimony as a witness in the investigation. Graham is going to testify before the grand jury.
The senator had asked the judge to temporarily stop the enforcement of the subpoena, pending his appeal of Monday's ruling trying to completely quash the subpoena and get out of testifying On Thursday, the Eleventh Circuit received Graham's appeal.
The Fulton County District Attorney wants to question Graham about calls he made to the Georgia Secretary of State's office after the election. Graham inquired about Georgia's election laws, including the power of the secretary to toss out certain mail ballots, according to a report.
Trump called Raffensperger days before Congress convened to confirm the election results and urged him to get enough votes to change the outcome of Georgia.
The calls are protected by the speech and debate clause of the constitution and were argued to May by lawyers for Graham.
Even if the clause protects Graham from testifying about the calls, he could still be questioned about other issues related to the investigation.
May said that some of Graham's arguments are completely unpersuasive.
"Senator Graham ignores the idea that more than one subject may have been discussed on the calls, and the court finds no basis for concluding that its holdings are likely to be reversed on the merits," she wrote.
May rejected the idea that the other areas of inquiry would be used as a back door to question him about the phone calls.
May wrote that the record thoroughly disagreed with the suggestion. The repeated argument doesn't make it true.
The judge agreed with the argument that delaying Graham's testimony would hurt the grand jury investigation.
The public interest is well-served when an investigation is allowed to proceed without unnecessary encumbrances.
She wrote that it was important for citizens to maintain faith that there were mechanisms in place for investigating attempts to disrupt elections and to prosecute crimes which strike at the heart of a democratic system.
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