Donald Trump’s favorite South Carolina bootlicker, Lindsey Graham, apparently believes he’s above the law.
Said his home state’s Charlotte Observer: “Lindsey Graham just can’t quit embarrassing South Carolina, or at least […] South Carolinians who care about democracy.”
Refuses to Comply
Let’s back up. Last week, a grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia issued subpoenas to Senator Graham and Rudy Giuliani, among others, compelling their testimony in the state’s investigation into Donald Trump’s possibly criminal election interference there. Graham’s legal team responded reasonably enough: they attempted to determine whether Graham was a subject of the investigation, or was being compelled simply as a witness.
According to the South Carolina Post and Courier, “Graham’s attorneys said they had been assured that he was not a target of a grand jury investigating whether then-President Donald Trump and his allies illegally interfered with Georgia’s 2020 election results.”
And, so, finding that he was not a target of the investigation, did Graham do the right and proper (and LEGAL) thing and commit to presenting himself at the time and place requested by the subpoena?
Nope!
He immediately asserted that he would not comply with the subpoena, putting out a statement through his attorneys claiming, “This is all politics. Fulton County is engaged in a fishing expedition and working in concert with the January 6 Committee in Washington. Any information from an interview or deposition with Senator Graham would immediately be shared with the January 6 Committee.”
Nope! Says Judge
Not to be trifled with like that, though, on Monday a judge ordered Graham to appear. Not surprising, because the Senator has absolutely zero legitimate grounds to refuse.
As NBC News put it, the “special grand jury in Georgia has an obvious and legitimate need for Graham’s testimony. Determining the Senator’s intent in making those phone calls to Secretary Raffensperger is more than enough reason to justify the subpoena.”
But, more importantly, “Graham’s insistence that the investigation is politically motivated does not give him a legal right to disregard a properly issued subpoena.”
Even the South Carolina Post and Courier found Graham’s “suggestion that [he] shouldn’t appear as a witness to testify in a lawfully convened grand jury investigation because he doesn’t believe the motives of the investigation meet his standard of apolitical purity,” to be “insulting.”
Just being Destroyed by his Constituents
So Graham moved to quash the subpoena in a South Carolina court. And this is where the story ends, for now, as we await the federal Judge’s ruling in Graham’s case.
But Graham’s slimy behavior has led to intense speculation nonetheless about just what it is he’s trying to hide. Again, from the Post and Courier, “let’s face it, there are only three reasons to try to avoid testifying: You’re worried you’ll incriminate yourself; you’re worried you’ll incriminate someone else you don’t want to incriminate; or you’re worried the investigation will turn up something you don’t like and so you want to undermine its credibility.”
“In the first case, the Constitution says you don’t have to testify. The two others, however, are not legally or morally justifiable reasons to try to weasel out of a subpoena. It’s possible that Mr. Graham’s high-powered lawyers will convince a judge that he shouldn’t be compelled to share what he knows in a criminal investigation that might not go anywhere. But that won’t make it right. We expect and deserve better from our senator.”