With GA Grand Jury On Hold, Graham And The First Amendment Are Still In The Crosshairs

[Kamaji]

With Georgia DA’s Get-Trump Grand Jury On Hold, Lindsey Graham And The First Amendment Are Still In The Crosshairs

The weaponization of a grand jury by state-level Democrats presents no less of a breach of the Rubicon than the Trump Mar-a-Lago raid.

BY: MARGOT CLEVELAND
AUGUST 22, 2022

Sunday morning, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily froze efforts by the Fulton County district attorney’s office to haul South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham to Georgia for questioning before a grand jury. However, a complete halt to the abuse of the grand jury process by the Democrat Fulton County prosecutor is needed to protect important First Amendment interests.

How It Happened
In July, news broke that the Democrat prosecutor for Fulton County, Georgia, Fani Willis, had subpoenaed to testify before her “special purpose grand jury” a slew of lawyers representing Donald Trump, as well as high-level Republicans at both the state and national levels, including Graham. Upon learning of the subpoena, Graham immediately filed a motion to quash, arguing that the Speech or Debate Clause of the Constitution, sovereign immunity, and the “high-ranking official” doctrine prevented the county district attorney from questioning him before a Georgia grand jury.

Last week, federal Judge Leigh Martin May, a Barack Obama appointee, denied Graham’s motion to quash, concluding neither sovereign immunity nor the “high-ranking official” doctrine protected Graham, and that it was too early to tell whether the DA’s questioning of the South Carolina senator would run afoul of the Speech or Debate Clause.

The Speech or Debate Clause of the Constitution provides that “for any Speech or Debate in either House, [members] shall not be questioned in any other Place.” This clause applies not merely to “speech” and “debate” in the literal sense, but to all “legislative acts.” Thus, in seeking to quash the subpoena, Graham argued that the two telephone conversations he had with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on which Willis’s subpoena focused, qualified as “legislative acts” because “his questioning of the secretary of state on reported irregularities in Georgia’s election were ‘integral’ to the ‘functioning of the legislative process.’”

In rejecting that argument, the federal court concluded that “the grand jury would not necessarily be precluded from all inquiries about the calls unless every aspect of the calls was determined to fall within the sphere of legitimate legislative activity.” But at this stage of the proceedings and without knowing the specific questions to which Graham objected, the court concluded it was premature to address whether the conversation fell within the protection of the Speech or Debate Clause.

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Source:  https://thefederalist.com/2022/08/22/with-georgia-das-get-trump-grand-jury-on-hold-lindsey-graham-and-the-first-amendment-are-still-in-the-crosshairs/