Report: Judge Nixes Sen. Graham's Bid to Avoid Grand Jury Testimony in Ga.
(Newsmax/"Rob Schmitt Tonight")
By Jay Clemons | Thursday, 20 October 2022 08:28 PM EDT
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., reportedly has been rejected by a federal appeals court in his effort to avoid testifying before a Georgia state grand jury, regarding the probe into whether former President Donald Trump and his supporters violated the law in their alleged efforts to reverse the 2020 election results.
As Newsmax chronicled in August, Graham previously requested that a Georgia-based federal district court expedite the hearing to block grand jury subpoena.
In a court filing at the time, Graham's attorneys argued that federal lawmakers were protected constitutionally from being forced to testify in state court.
"A federal court would be ordering a U.S. Senator from a coequal branch of government to appear before a grand jury," the filing stated.
"And enforcement would pose an even larger problem: It would create a precedent that would allow other county officials in locales across the nation to impose similar burdens on federal officials, of whatever party, to the detriment of our federal government and the federalism that protects it from state and local interference. And to what end? There is no need for Senator Graham's testimony, far less 'extraordinary circumstances' compelling it," the filing continued.
On Thursday, according to CNN, prosecutors in Georgia also secured grand jury testimony from two prominent witnesses: former Trump White House Counsel Pat Cipollone and former Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga.
Cipollone was the top White House lawyer at the end of the Trump administration, and he reportedly attended meetings regarding the disputed election results.
The former Trump counsel recently provided testimony to the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 unrest at the Capitol, along with the Justice Department's criminal investigation.
At the time, Cipollone invoked Trump's executive-privilege claims when fielding questions.
The report of Loeffler's testimony comes on the heels of Jan. 6-related text messages involving the former senator surfacing. In January 2021, Loeffler was embroiled in a special Senate election with then-challenger Raphael Warnock, who's now a sitting senator representing Georgia.
When speaking on the Senate floor in on Jan. 6, 2021, Loeffler said, "When I arrived in Washington this morning, I fully intended to object to the certification of the electoral votes. However, the events that have transpired have forced me to reconsider, and I cannot now in good conscience object to the certification of these electors."
During the same speech, Loeffler reportedly condemned the Capitol rally as "abhorrent."
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Loeffler received several messages from Congresswoman-elect Marjorie Taylor Greene in the weeks prior to Jan. 6, 2021, including one text regarding a "plan we are developing on how to vote on the electoral college votes on Jan 6th," sent a month before that date.
Also, on Dec. 20, 2020, Greene reportedly invited Loeffler to a White House meeting with then-President Trump, along with other members of Congress, who were going to "challenge the Electoral College votes for [Joe] Biden in several key swing states on January 6."