Aug. 23 (UPI) — A federal judge on Monday ordered Sen. Lindsey Graham‘s legal team to produce a list of questions a grand jury investigating efforts to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results can ask the sitting senator.
Judge Leigh Martin May ordered attorneys for the South Carolina Republican to provide by 9 a.m. Wednesday a list of questions that the grand jury can ask Graham under the speech and debate clause of the U.S. Constitution.
The Fulton County District Attorney’s Office, which is leading the probe, will then have until 9 a.m. on Aug. 29 to file its response, at which point Graham will have two days to reply.
The probe is seeking information from Graham about a pair of phone calls he made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger seeking to alter the results of the 2020 presidential election.
His lawyers, however, have argued that he is protected by the speech and debate clause which protects “legislative acts” by active members of Congress such as speeches on the House or Senate floor.
In the phone calls to Raffensperger, Graham allegedly asked about “examining certain absentee ballots cast in Georgia in order to explore the possibility of a more favorable outcome” for then-President Donald Trump and whether the secretary of state “had the power to toss all mail ballots” in counties with poor signature match rates.
Graham has said that his calls to Raffensperger were legislative acts.
May previously rejected a request by Graham to quash the subpoena ordering him to testify and scheduled him to appear before the grand jury this week.
However, on Sunday, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily blocked the order while directing Graham’s attorneys and prosecutors for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to expand their arguments.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican who resisted Trump’s efforts to overturn the state’s election results, was also scheduled to testify on Tuesday but a judge overseeing the grand jury will instead hold a hearing Thursday to determine whether the testimony will be delayed until after Nov. 8 as Kemp seeks re-election.
