A Georgia prosecutor plans to look into a phone call between Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. This is part of a criminal probe to determine if former President Donald Trump or his backers violated Georgia law in trying to overturn his election loss in the state, The Washington Post reports.
In November, a top staffer for Raffensperger said that he was on the line when Graham asked his boss whether he had the power to toss out absentee ballots in certain counties, which Raffensperger interpreted as a suggestion to toss out legally cast votes, NBC News reported at the time. Graham denied that that was his intention.
The source familiar with the probe told the outlet that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’s inquiry would include examining the call Graham made to Raffensperger 10 days after the Nov. 3 election.
“The call will “be looked at,” said the individual familiar with the investigation — though the person cautioned that little is known about the call for now, or whether Graham violated any laws,” the outlet reports.
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Graham spokesman Kevin Bishop called the probe “ridiculous.”
“Sen. Graham was asking about how the signature verification process worked,” Bishop told The Washington Post. “He never asked the Secretary of State to disqualify a ballot cast by anyone. The timing on this is also quite curious. It seems to be a less than transparent effort to marginalize anyone who helps President Trump.”
The South Carolina Republican was a juror in Trump’s Senate impeachment trial.
“So Graham is sitting in judgment on Trump on a charge that cites Trump’s call to Raffensperger, while Graham may be a person of interest in a criminal investigation of his own call to Raffensperger,” Stephen Gillers, a law professor at New York University who studies legal ethics told the outlet. “Outside the Senate’s Wonderland court, a potential juror who is under investigation for conduct that is also the subject of the trial would be excused for cause.”
As for Trump, he called Raffensperfer — a Republican — to say, “I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have,” in January. The former president also threatened the official with “a criminal offense.” Trump sounds more like a mob boss than he ever did a president. And Graham acts as if Trump has something on him.
Featured image via Gage Skidmore/Flickr, under Creative Commons license 2.0
