The Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) will be required to comply with the subpoena that orders him to testify before the Atlanta special grand jury looking into possible interference by Donald Trump and his allies in the 2020 election in Georgia.
Graham and his legal team argued that he should not have to testify because his two phone calls to Georgia election officials in 2020 should be protected under the speech and debate clause in the U.S. Constitution.
While the Supreme Court said Graham needs to appear before the grand jury, they also mentioned that he will not be required to answer questions about topics that would fall under the protection of the speech and debate clause and that he will be able to return to court if he is asked something that he feels are outside of the limits.
Graham has said that the phone calls he had with Georgia election officials were just to discuss the election rather than to persuade them to do or not do something.
Graham’s request to avoid testifying made its way to the high court last week after the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals chose not to grant Graham’s attempt to get out of the subpoena.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis‘ office’s investigation surrounds a December 2020 phone call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in which Trump told Raffensperger to “find the votes” to overturn the election results in Georgia. President Joe Bidenended up winning the state by just 11,000 votes.
