Georgia prosecutor knocks Lindsey Graham’s subpoena challenge

by Julia Mueller - 08/04/22 3:59 PM ET

A Georgia prosecutor on Thursday hit back at Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) for challenging a subpoena to testify before the special grand jury investigating former President Trump’s election meddling attempts in the state.

In a Thursday court filing, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) said Graham’s challenge is “built on the shifting sands of erroneous legal arguments, inapplicable legal principles, and citations to caselaw that fail to support any legal point being made.”

Graham renewed his efforts to resist the subpoena earlier this week, asking the Georgia federal district court to expedite hearing his challenge.

His legal team argued in a court filing that the subpoena would set a precedent allowing “other county officials in locales across the country 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.”

The Georgia special grand jury’s criminal probe is looking into Trump’s efforts to sway state officials and overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.

Willis has subpoenaed Trump associates and allies including Rep. Jody Hice (R-Ga.), Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R), former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and conservative lawyers John Eastman, Jenna Ellis and Cleta Mitchell.

Willis subpoenaed Graham about his communications with state elections officials following the 2020 election.

Graham’s activities during that time “certainly appear interconnected with former President Trump’s similar efforts to pressure Georgia election officials into ‘finding 11,780 votes’ and to spread Georgia election fraud disinformation,” Willis wrote in Thursday’s filing.

“Rather than fantasizing about roads to quashal, [Graham] would be better served by consideration of Thomas Jefferson’s maxim that ‘legislators ought not to stand above the law they create but ought generally to be bound by it as are ordinary persons.’”

Axios first reported on the new filing.