ATLANTA — A federal judge ruled Monday that U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham must testify before the special purpose grand jury looking into possible election interference in the 2020 presidential election.
Graham said he will continue to fight this and his legal team plan to appeal the ruling, but prosecutors say the grand jury needs to hear from him about three phone calls.
Fulton County’s district attorney said Graham called Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger twice in the days after election.
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The grand jury wants to know if those phone calls were somehow connected with former President Donald Trump’s call, asking Raffensperger to fund more votes.
“Look, all I want to do is find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we had because we won that election,” Trump was recorded saying during the call.
Graham and his attorneys are fighting a subpoena to testify.
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Channel 2 Action News was the only television station outside the federal courthouse in downtown Atlanta Wednesday as Graham’s team walked in to make their arguments.
Graham’s attorneys insist the constitution protects him from having to testify.
“Sen. Graham went to federal court and relied on the Constitution in arguing that, ‘Hey, you can’t call me in to testify because what I would be talking about would be privileged information as part of my legislative duties,’” Defense Attorney Page Pate said.
But the judge rejected that argument Monday.
Graham’s office said they disagree with the judge’s interpretation of the Constitution and his lawyers say his calls to Raffensperger were clearly part of his legislative duties.
Graham is supposed to appear before the grand jury on Aug. 23.
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