Sen. Lindsey Graham speaks with reporters on Capitol Hill, in Washington, on March 10.Alex Brandon/The Associated Press
Attorneys representing Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said Wednesday he intends to challenge a subpoena compelling him to testify before a special grand jury in Georgia investigating former President Donald Trump and his allies’ actions after the 2020 election.
Graham was one of a handful of Trump confidants and lawyers named Tuesday in petitions filed by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis as part of her investigation into what she alleges was “a multi-state, co-ordinated plan by the Trump Campaign to influence the results of the November 2020 election in Georgia and elsewhere.”
Graham attorneys Bart Daniel and Matt Austin said in a statement Wednesday that the Republican senator “plans to go to court, challenge the subpoena, and expects to prevail,” and they slammed the probe as politically motivated.
“This is all politics. Fulton County is engaged in a fishing expedition and working in concert with the January 6 Committee in Washington,” they wrote, adding that, “As Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Graham was well within his rights to discuss with state officials the processes and procedures around administering elections.”
“Should it stand, the subpoena issued today would erode the constitutional balance of power and the ability of a Member of Congress to do their job,” they went on. They also said they had been informed by Fulton County investigators that Graham “is neither a subject nor target of the investigation.”
A spokesperson for Willis, a Democrat, did not immediately respond to a text message seeking comment.
In the petition submitted Tuesday, Willis wrote that Graham, a long-time Trump ally, made at least two telephone calls to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and members of his staff in the weeks after the November 2020 presidential election, which Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden. During those calls, Graham asked about re-examining certain absentee ballots “to explore the possibility of a more favourable outcome for former President Donald Trump,” she wrote.
Willis also filed petitions to compel co-operation from former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who was one of Trump’s primary lawyers during the failed efforts to overturn the result of the election, as well as lawyers Kenneth Chesebro, Cleta Mitchell, Jenna Ellis, John Eastman and Jacki Pick Deason.
Giuliani was recovering Tuesday after undergoing surgery to have two heart stents put in, his son, Andrew Giuliani, said while filling in for him as co-host on radio’s “The Rudy Giuliani Show.”
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