Sen. Lindsey Graham’s attempt to avoid testifying before an Atlanta grand jury looking into whether the former president meddled in the 2020 election was rejected by a federal appeals court on Thursday, finding that the ardent Trump supporter had “failed to demonstrate” that his appeal of a lower court’s order would be successful.
The South Carolina Republican claims that when he contacted a Georgia official after the 2020 election, he was acting in his capacity as a legislator and making appropriate queries.
According to Graham, the speech and debate clause of the Constitution “provides perfect security from scrutiny into Senator Graham’s legislative activity.”
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According to court records, Graham phoned the Georgia Secretary of State’s office at least twice in the weeks after the November 2020 election to re-examine absentee votes “to investigate the likelihood of a more favorable result” for Trump.
The Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who is in charge of an extensive investigation into election meddling, had been found to have “shown extraordinary circumstances and a special need for Senator Graham’s testimony on issues relating to allegations of attempts to influence or disrupt the lawful administration of Georgia’s 2020 elections,” according to U.S. District Judge Leigh Martin May.