Lindsey Graham testifies before Fulton County special grand jury
Sen. Graham testifies before Fulton County grand jury
A spokesman for South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham says the senator testified before a special grand jury in Fulton County for just over two hours and answered all the questions. Tuesday morning, after months of legal battles, Graham finally appeared before the grand jury investigating whether former President Donald Trump and others tried to overturn Trump's 2020 election loss.
FULTON COUNTY, Ga. - After months of delays and legal arguments, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham testified before the Fulton County grand jury investigating possible illegal interference in the 2020 election by then-President Donald Trump and his allies.
Graham was scheduled to appear before the grand jury last week, but his testimony was pushed back to Tuesday.
The senator has made multiple attempts to quash the subpoena ordering him to testify, but earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for his testimony by lifting their temporary hold on his appearance.
The South Carolina senator, a top Trump ally, had argued that a provision of the Constitution, the speech and debate clause, shields him from being forced to testify at all.
Sen. Lindsay Graham leaves the Senate floor after voting no on a procedural vote on federal legislation protecting same-sex marriages, at the U.S. Capitol on November 16, 2022. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
The court ruled that Graham has to testify, but that he did not have to discuss matters related to legislative activity.
Graham, a four-term senator who last won reelection in 2020, was first subpoenaed in July by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. The district attorney opened her investigation shortly after a recording of a January 2021 phone call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad 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 wants to question the senator about two phone calls he made to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and his staff in the weeks after the 2020 election.
During those calls, Graham asked about "reexamining certain absentee ballots cast in Georgia in order to explore the possibility of a more favorable outcome for former President Donald Trump," Willis wrote in a petition seeking to compel his testimony.
Graham also "made reference to allegations of widespread voter fraud in the November 2020 election in Georgia, consistent with public statements made by known affiliates of the Trump Campaign," she wrote. She said in a hearing last month that Graham may be able to provide insight into the extent of any coordinated efforts to influence the results.
Raffensperger said he took Graham’s question about absentee ballots as a suggestion to toss out legally cast votes. Graham has dismissed that interpretation as "ridiculous." Graham has also argued that the call was protected because he was asking questions to inform his decisions on voting to certify the 2020 election and future legislation.
Both Raffensperger and his Chief Operating Officer Gabe Sterling testified before the grand jury earlier this year. Others who have already made their appearances before the special grand jury, including former New York mayor and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani — who’s been told he could face criminal charges in the probe — attorneys John Eastman and Kenneth Chesebro, and former White House counsel Pat Cipollone.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.