Judge delays senator’s testimony in election case

The district attorney of Fulton County, Ga., has called a number of high-profile witnesses for a grand jury inquiry into former President Donald Trump’s response to the 2020 election in the state. On Sunday, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to temporarily grant a request by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., to block a subpoena from prosecutor Fani Willis. Graham and other potential witnesses, including Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, said Willis, a Democrat, orchestrated the investigation to hurt Republicans in the midterm elections. The South Carolina senator was scheduled to testify next week but asked the courts to quash the subpoena because of constitutional protections for members of Congress.

What is Willis investigating? She says she has reason to suspect criminal disruptions in the 2020 election. Those disruptions, she asserts, stem from when Trump called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, informing him that he just wanted “to find 11,780 votes” to close the gap between him and Joe Biden in the state. The grand jury has already heard closed-door testimony from other witnesses with close ties to Trump, such as Rudy Giuliani, who was formerly Trump’s personal lawyer.

Dig deeper: Read Carolina Lumetta’s report in The Stew about the effects of election law changes in Georgia.