Graham Bails On Scheduled Fulton County Court Appearance

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on Wednesday did not show up for his scheduled appearance at the Fulton County courthouse, following an agreement he reached with the county district attorney, according to a local CBS affiliate.

TPM reached out to Graham’s office for comment.

A special grand jury led by Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis is investigating former President Trump and his allies’ efforts to subvert the 2020 election results in Georgia. Willis recently subpoenaed Graham who initially challenged the subpoena in his home state. Last month, Graham reached an agreement with Willis to move his challenges to a district court in Georgia.

Graham followed through with disputing the subpoena earlier this month, attempting to quash it.

In their challenge, Graham’s lawyers argued that he has “absolute legislative immunity and privilege” under the Constitution’s speech or debate clause. They also asserted the defense of federal sovereign immunity in challenging the subpoena.

Last month, a county judge in Georgia ruled that Graham must testify before the special grand jury in Willis’ investigation. The grand jury wants to hear from Graham because of the calls he made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R), who refused to do Trump’s bidding of overturning the election results. In at least one of the calls, Graham allegedly asked Raffensperger to toss out some legally cast ballots. The calls were cited in the subpoena Willis sent to Graham.

The grand jury also subpoenaed several members of Trump’s legal team, including Rudy Giuliani and Ken Cheseboro.

In addition to Graham, Willis issued a subpoena in June to Rep. Jody Hice (R-GA), who was among a group of Trump allies who attempted to decertify Biden’s electoral victory on Jan. 6. Hice filed a motion to quash the subpoena shortly after receiving the subpoena.