A federal appeals court on Sunday agreed to temporarily put on hold a lower court’s order requiring that U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham testify before a special grand jury that’s investigating illegal plots to overturn Donald Trump’s 2020 presidential election loss in Georgia.
A subpoena had instructed the South Carolina Republican to appear before the special grand jury on Tuesday.
U.S. District Judge Leigh Martin May had denied Mr. Graham’s request last Monday to quash his subpoena and on Friday rejected his effort to put her decision on hold while he appealed. Mr. Graham’s lawyers then appealed to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
On Sunday, a three-judge panel of the appeals court issued the order temporarily pausing Justice May’s order declining to quash the subpoena. The panel sent the case back to Justice May to decide whether the subpoena should be partially quashed or modified because of protections granted to members of Congress by the U.S. Constitution.
Once Justice May decides that issue, the case will return to the 11th Circuit for further consideration, according to the appeals court order.
Mr. Graham’s representatives did not immediately respond Sunday to messages seeking comment on the appellate ruling. A spokesperson for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis declined to comment.
Ms. Willis opened the investigation early last year, prompted by a Jan. 2, 2021, phone call between Mr. Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. During that conversation, Mr. Trump suggested Mr. Raffensperger could “find” the votes needed to overturn his narrow loss in the state.
Ms. Willis and her team have said they want to ask Mr. Graham about two phone calls they say he made to Mr. Raffensperger and his staff shortly after the 2020 general election. During those calls, Mr. Graham asked about “re-examining certain absentee ballots cast in Georgia in order to explore the possibility of a more favourable outcome for former President Donald Trump,” Ms. Willis wrote in a petition seeking to compel his testimony.
Mr. 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.
During a hearing earlier this month on Mr. Graham’s motion to quash his subpoena, Ms. Willis’ team argued that Mr. Graham may be able to provide insight into the extent of any co-ordinated efforts to influence the results of the 2020 general election in Georgia.
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