A federal appeals court has temporarily stayed an order that would have required Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R.C.) to testify before a Georgia grand jury investigating Republican efforts to overturn the results of the presidential election in 2020 in the state.
Graham had formally appealed a judge’s order requiring him to testify on Tuesday, saying doing so would cause “irreparable harm” that would be “in violation of his constitutional immunity.”
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit temporarily suspended his appearance on Sunday and asked a lower court to consider whether Graham should be protected from answering some questions about his official duties as US senator
The legal maneuver is the latest sign of tension between prosecutors and high-profile witnesses in the Fulton County district attorney’s sprawling criminal investigation into alleged election meddling by former President Donald Trump and his allies. After seeking repeated delays, Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s former lawyer, testified for six hours last week.
The panel heard testimony from Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) and his staff, Georgia Attorney General Christopher M. Carr (R), state lawmakers and local election workers. The state’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp, filed a 121-page motion last week to kill a subpoena requiring his testimony.
Graham has called the Georgia investigation “a fishing expedition” and argued that the constitution’s “speech or debate clause” protects lawmakers from answering questions about their official legislative duties. His lawyers say Graham has done nothing wrong and have been told Graham is a prosecution witness and not a target of the investigation.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) has expressed interest in questioning Graham about his post-2020 election conversations with Raffensperger, among other issues. In court filings, Willis said his investigation is examining “coordinated, multistate efforts to influence the results of the November 2020 election in Georgia and elsewhere.” His office’s filing Friday argued that delaying Graham’s appearance would “delay the disclosure of an entire category of relevant witnesses,” pushing back the investigation’s timeline.
The district attorney says Graham’s testimony is crucial in the election investigation
U.S. District Judge Leigh Martin May on Friday denied Graham’s request to postpone his testimony, as well as his request for an emergency hearing.
“Senator Graham’s arguments are wholly unpersuasive, and do not even demonstrate a ‘substantial case on the merits,'” the judge wrote at the time, prompting Graham’s lawyers to file an emergency appeal.
On Sunday, the appeals court ordered the lower court to review arguments about whether Graham is entitled to “a partial quashing or modification of the subpoena” to solicit his testimony. After the lower court’s review was completed, the appeals court said it would consider the matter.
As Graham continues his efforts to kill his subpoena, a member of Congress who once raised similar objections, Rep. Jody Hice (R-Ga.), testified before the special grand jury for more than two hours last week , his lawyer said.
Like Graham, Hice had tried to kill a subpoena, citing constitutional protections of the speech or debate clause. Judge May too denied Hice’s motion. Hice is a Trump ally who echoed false claims of widespread voter fraud after the 2020 election and in his failed bid for Georgia secretary of state.
John Wagner and Matthew Brown contributed to this report.