Sen. Lindsey Graham was ordered to file his latest arguments by Wednesday in a renewed bid to limit his testimony before a Georgia grand jury investigating efforts by Donald Trump and his allies to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state.
U.S. District Judge Leigh Martin May on Monday told the South Carolina Republican to explain in the filing why she should partially quash or modify his subpoena under the "speech or debate" clause of the U.S. Constitution. A federal appeals court on Sunday temporarily delayed his testimony and sent the case back to the lower court for further review on that argument.
Graham had been subpoenaed by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to testify about phone calls he made after the election to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who has said the senator appeared to suggest certain mail-in ballots could be discarded.
Graham has argued that the phone calls were “investigatory, information-gathering exercises” by the legislature that are protected by the speech or debate clause. May rejected that argument when she ordered him to testify before the grand jury, but the claim will now get a fresh review after the appellate ruling.
Willis argues the phone calls are just part of what the grand jury is investigating. She has until Aug. 29 to respond to Graham’s upcoming filing.
The judge asked both sides to address “whether informal investigative inquiries by individual members of Congress into issues that arguably fall within that member’s legislative province constitute protected ‘legislative activity’ under the Speech or Debate Clause, or, to the contrary, whether such protection extends only to investigative inquiries that originate from a more formal congressional source, such as an investigation authorized by a Senate subcommittee.”
