SC Sen. Lindsey Graham says forced testifying about 2020 election would ‘create chaos’
Sen. Lindsey Graham said Monday that he hopes the U.S. Supreme Court will block a Georgia prosecutors’ attempt to force him to testify in an investigation into an attempt to overturn results in the 2020 presidential election.
About the time Graham was speaking in York County, a report from the Associated Press said U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas had temporarily blocked Graham’s testimony to a special grand jury investigating whether then-President Donald Trump and others illegally tried to influence the 2020 election in Georgia.
Thomas’ order is intended to prevent Fani Willis, Fulton County district attorney, from compelling Graham to testify in that case, according to the Associated Press report.
Graham said the attempts by the Georgia prosecutor to force him to testify would “create chaos” for members of Congress who are trying to do their jobs.
Graham, a Republican, said he believes he should not be forced to testify because he was doing his job as a U.S. Senator when he was seeking information and made comments about the election when the former president was seeking to overturn results in Georgia.
“If every county prosecutor could start questioning what a senator did when they are acting within the scope of their job, it would create chaos,” Graham said Monday.
Graham was in York, S.C. Monday for a news conference about a huge fentanyl drug seizure. After the news conference, he was questioned by McClatchy about the subpoena from Georgia prosecutors, which he says is illegal.
Graham’s legal team asked the U.S. Supreme Court Friday to review that case after lower federal courts said he can be called to testify.
Sovereign immunity
Graham said Congress members doing the public’s work have sovereign immunity and he should not have to testify under the speech and debate rules of the Constitution.
“The Constitution has two concepts, speech and debate and sovereign immunity,” Graham said. “We have to allow people in Washington to make decisions that don’t subject them to harassment and politically motivated activity throughout the country. If every time we take votes and somebody doesn’t like what we did or questioned what we did, it breaks down the whole system.”
The Georgia probe
In Fulton County, Ga, Willis is in charge of an investigation into what Trump and his political cohorts did to try and overturn the 2020 presidential election.
Trump allegedly told Georgia officials to find the votes needed to win Georgia. Trump lost Georgia in 2020.
Graham has said that he needed information from Georgia election officials about the election as part of his requirements for his job in the Senate Judiciary Committee where he is the chairman, according to court filings.
Graham did eventually vote in the Senate to confirm Joe Biden as President.
Graham said he will testify if his attempt fails in the U.S. Supreme Court.
However, he said a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in his favor is important for members of Congress to be able to do their jobs.
It remains unclear what effect Thomas’s order will have on the case.
“We will follow the law,” Graham said Monday. “If I have to go, we will go....Whatever happens, we are going to follow the law.”
This story was originally published October 24, 2022 at 1:58 PM.
