Sen. Graham Must Testify In Georgia Election Case: Judge

ATLANTA, GA — Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-SC, was ordered Monday by a federal judge to testify before an Atlanta-area special grand jury in a probe into then-President Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia.

U.S. District Judge Leigh Martin May denied arguments from Graham's attorneys that his status as a U.S. senator gave him immunity from appearing before the grand jury under subpoena.

The subpoena calls for Graham to appear before the special grand jury Aug. 23. His office said Monday he plans to appeal to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Investigators plan to question Graham about two phone calls with Georgia election officials in which the process for counting absentee ballots was discussed.

Graham has "unique personal knowledge" of the phone calls and has publicly denied election officials' accounts of the calls, May wrote in her decision.

Graham's attorney's argued his immunity applied because the calls were under his official business, which is protected under the Constitution's speech and debate clause.

May disagreed, saying there are multiple avenues of questioning outside of Graham's official duties. Among those are Graham's communication with the Trump campaign regarding its post-election efforts in Georgia, knowledge of other people involved with efforts to influence Georgia’s 2020 election results and his public statements following the 2020 election.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.