ATLANTA — Attorneys for South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham say they will challenge a subpoena by Fulton County for him to appear before a special grand jury looking into possible election tampering by former President Donald Trump.
A Fulton County judge signed off on seven certificates of material witnesses on Tuesday sent to Graham, Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Kenneth Chesebro, Cleta Mitchell, Jenna Ellis and Jacki Deason.
Giuliani was Trump’s personal lawyer and Graham was one of the former president’s top allies in the U.S. Senate. Eastman, Mitchell, Chesebro and Ellis all advised Trump on strategies to overturn President Joe Biden’s win in Georgia.
The subpoenas were filed July 5 and each of the people outlined is asked to appear in front of the grand jury on July 12.
In the documents directed at Graham, Judge Robert McBurney said the senator is being asked to testify, in part because of two phone calls he made in November of 2020 to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. In those calls, Graham asked Raffensperger to reexamine “certain absentee ballots cast in Georgia to explore the possibility of a more favorable outcome for former President Donald Trump.”
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In a statement, Graham’s attorneys said:
“This is all politics. Fulton County is engaged in a fishing expedition and working in concert with the January 6 Committee in Washington. Any information from an interview or deposition with Senator Graham would immediately be shared with the January 6 Committee. 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.”
The DA’s office said the special grand jury is investigating whether Trump broke state law when he asked Raffensperger to find enough votes to overturn Georgia’s presidential election results, which went in favor of Joe Biden.
A late January 2020 WSBTV.com report referred to a statement released by Trump saying, in part:
“My phone call to the Secretary of State of Georgia was perfect. I knew there were large numbers of people on the line, including numerous lawyers for both sides. I didn’t say anything wrong in the call, made while I was President on behalf of the United States of America, to look into the massive voter fraud which took place in Georgia.”
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