Prosecutors ask Supreme Court to reject Lindsey Graham's stay in election probe

Oct. 28 (UPI) -- Prosecutors for the investigation into efforts to undermine the 2020 Presidential Election results in Georgia, asked Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to deny Sen. Lindsey Graham's request for a stay an order for his testimony Thursday.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis issued a 22-page response to the request from Graham, R-S.C., which was made on Oct. 21. Justice Thomas temporarily shielded Graham from testifying to the grand jury in Georgia, by taking in Graham's request for review.

Graham's testimony is time sensitive for the grand jury, whose term expires in April. If Graham is granted a stay or protected from testifying altogether, the grand jury may have to request an extension or draw conclusions without key testimony.

"While the harm to the public's interest in the timely and effective resolution of this investigation would be certain, Senator Graham faces no danger of harm should a stay be denied," the response said.

Graham was subpoenaed to testify in the case over the summer and has since made efforts to counter. Prosecutors consider Graham's testimony relevant because of alleged conversations he had with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in the days following the election. Raffensperger told The Washington Post that Graham and other Republicans pressured him to throw out mail-in ballots in an effort to change the election's results.

On Oct. 21, the District of Northern Georgia's 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Graham must testify in the election probe. Graham's subsequent request for a stay argues that his conversations with Raffensperger were legislative in nature, and as a lawmaker he should be constitutionally protected from being compelled to testify.

"Without a stay Senator Lindsey Graham will be questioned by a local Georgia prosecutor and her ad hoc investigative body about his protected 'speech or debate' related to the 2020 election," wrote Graham's lawyers.

The district court's decision reaffirmed that Graham's questioning must be kept specifically to his efforts to persuade Raffensperger on the election results. The response from the prosecution Thursday assures his questioning will not include his legislative activities.

"Despite Senator Graham's attempts to portray himself and the future of the Speech or Debate Clause as imperiled by the prospect of his questioning, the record and the orders of the lower courts demonstrate that his arguments lack adequate factual or legal support to carry his heavy burden before Your Honor," the prosecution wrote.