A good look at extra-constitutional judicial processes.
I'll try to build up a timeline at some point.
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A federal appeals court gave Sen. Lindsey Graham a temporary win early Sunday, ruling that he doesn’t have to comply for now with a subpoena from an Atlanta grand jury demanding that he testify Tuesday about his role in an effort to pressure Georgia officials to change the results of the 2020 presidential election.
A federal appeals court gave Sen. Lindsey Graham a temporary win early Sunday, ruling that he doesn’t have to comply for now with a subpoena from an Atlanta grand jury demanding that he testify Tuesday about his role in an effort to pressure Georgia officials to change the results of the 2020 presidential election.
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the subpoena at Graham’s request Sunday, after a federal district court judge in Atlanta turned down the South Carolina Republican’s bid to avoid testifying on the grounds that the local grand jury is intruding on legal protections he enjoys as a federal lawmaker.
The appeals court said in a two-page order that Graham’s attorneys and prosecutors for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis needed to flesh out arguments about whether Graham is entitled to have the federal courts place legal guardrails on the questioning Graham could face. The 11th Circuit panel’s order said that those arguments should be presented first to U.S. District Court Judge Leigh Martin May, who issued a ruling last week rejecting the arguments Graham’s team raised under the Constitution’s speech or debate clause — which immunizes lawmakers from most legal consequences for actions relating to their lawmaking responsibilities.
Investigators have said they want to query Graham about two phone calls he had with Georgia election officials in late 2020, at the same time Trump was attempting to subvert his defeat. Graham has acknowledged discussing with the officials the state’s process for counting absentee ballots.
His attorneys have argued that those conversations pertained to his official duties as a senator, but May ruled there were indications that the exchanges went beyond “legislative fact-finding.”
Terms:
- federal appeals court
- Sen. Lindsey Graham
- subpoena
- Atlanta grand jury
- testify
- 2020 presidential election.
- 11th Circuit Court of Appeals
- blocked the subpoena
- federal district court judge in Atlanta
- South Carolina Republican
- legal protections he enjoys as a federal lawmaker.
- Graham’s attorneys
- prosecutors for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis
- legal guardrails
- U.S. District Court Judge Leigh Martin May
- “legislative fact-finding.”
- “Senator Graham has unique personal knowledge about the substance and
- Georgia election officials
- “limited remand”
- oral arguments
- legal briefs
- expedite
- three-judge panel
- appointee
- “partial quashal”
- “total” rejection of the subpoena
- criminal conduct
- county judge
