OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
A federal judge has rejected a bid from South Carolina GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham to toss a subpoena compelling him to testify before the Atlanta-area grand jury.
The grand jury is investigating the extent of any coordinated efforts to influence the results of the 2020 general election in Georgia.
“The Court finds that the District Attorney has shown extraordinary circumstances and a special need for Senator Graham’s testimony on issues relating to alleged attempts to influence or disrupt the lawful administration of Georgia’s 2022 elections,” U.S. District Court Judge Leigh Martin May wrote in a 22-page opinion rejecting Graham’s effort and sending the matter back to state courts for further proceedings.
Graham must appear before the grand jury for an Aug. 23 interview.
BREAKING: A federal judge has *denied* Lindsey Graham's attempt to quahs his Fulton County grand jury subpoena.
"[T]he Court finds that the District Attorney has shown
extraordinary circumstances and a special need for Senator Graham’s testimony."https://t.co/9Red9FgbRh— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) August 15, 2022
It was revealed earlier this year that Graham threatened the White House that if Donald Trump did not condemn his supporters at the Jan. 6 protests at the Capitol, he would call for him to be removed from the presidency.
That is the claim of a new book, of which an excerpt was shown.
Graham, among the ex-president’s staunchest supporters in Congress, reportedly even hoped the insurrection would be a catalyst for the GOP breaking free of Trump.
He expressed that then-President-elect Joe Biden was the right person to lead the country amid the political tumult following the 2020 presidential election, according to the forthcoming book This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden and the Battle for America’s Future, by New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns.
If Trump did not condemn the Capitol rioters on stronger terms, an ‘enraged’ Graham told White House counsel Pat Cipollone on January 6, then ‘we’ll be asking you for the 25th Amendment,’ reports from the book.
The 25th Amendment, which outlines presidential succession, gives the vice president and Cabinet the power to remove the commander-in-chief from office via a majority vote. It has never been invoked in U.S. history.
He said to the authors of the book that he wanted to see the riot cause the Republican Party to break from the former president.
“People will say, ‘I don’t want to be associated with that,’ he said. “’There will be a rallying effect for a while, the country says: We’re better than this.”
And of President Joe Biden, he offered praise when he said, “I mean, how mad can you get at Joe Biden?”
The ruling against Graham this week comes amid the political fallout after Biden’s FBI raided Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida last week.
The FBI’s unannounced raid was allegedly tied to boxes of classified information that Trump had supposedly taken to his Florida estate.
Republicans are vowing to “clean house” in the wake of the FBI raiding Trump’s home in Florida.
“This is Gestapo crap and it will not stand. The Department of Injustice needs to be cleaned out if they are going to start pretending we are some kind of banana republic,” Rep. Lauren Boebert, Colorado Republican, went on to say in a video she posted on Twitter.
Arizona GOP Rep. Paul Gosar issued a similar response, saying: “I will support a complete dismantling and elimination of the democrat brown shirts known as the FBI. This is too much for our republic to withstand.”
“DEFUND THE FBI!” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a member of the GOP from Georgia, stated in a post on Twitter.
“House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said Attorney General Merrick Garland should preserve documents and clear his calendar because the GOP will investigate the raid if they retake the majority. Ms. Boebert made a similar vow in her Twitter video,” the report said.
“The FBI raiding Donald Trump is unprecedented. It is corrupt & an abuse of power,” Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz wrote on Twitter. “What Nixon tried to do, Biden has now implemented: The Biden Admin has fully weaponized DOJ & FBI to target their political enemies.”
