Lindsey Graham Must Testify in Georgia Elections Inquiry, Court Rules

ATLANTA — A federal appeals court ruled on Thursday that Senator Lindsey Graham must appear before the special grand jury that is investigating efforts by former President Donald J. Trump and his allies to overturn Mr. Trump’s election loss in Georgia, although the court set limits on the kinds of questions Mr. Graham could be asked.

The ruling means that Mr. Graham, at some date after the Nov. 8 midterm elections, will most likely have to travel to the Fulton County courthouse in downtown Atlanta to answer questions about phone calls he made to the Georgia secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, in the weeks after the 2020 election.

In a court document issued this summer, Judge Robert C.I. McBurney of Fulton County Superior Court wrote that Mr. Graham, in the course of those phone calls, “questioned Secretary Raffensperger and his staff about re-examining certain absentee ballots cast in Georgia in order to explore the possibility of a more favorable outcome for former President Donald Trump.”

Neither Mr. Graham’s media representative nor his lawyers could be reached for comment on Thursday, and a spokesman for Fani T. Willis, the Fulton County district attorney, declined to comment. But the six-page ruling, from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta, is a blow for Mr. Graham, the South Carolina Republican who transformed from a critic of Mr. Trump to an avid fan and his golfing partner over the course of Mr. Trump’s one term in office.

Mr. Graham’s lawyers have argued that the senator made the calls to Mr. Raffensperger because he needed to “run down allegations of irregularities in Georgia” before he voted to certify that President Biden was the legitimate winner of the presidential election. The lawyers also said, among other things, that Mr. Graham was reviewing election-related issues in his role as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee at the time.

After a subpoena was issued to Mr. Graham in July, he started an extended legal battle in an effort to avoid testifying in Atlanta. One of his main arguments was that any testimony he gave would violate the Speech and Debate Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which shields members of Congress from having to answer questions in court about their legislative activities.

In early September, Judge Leigh Martin May of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia ruled that the Speech and Debate Clause indeed shielded Mr. Graham, but only up to a point. She wrote that Mr. Graham did not have to answer any questions about his “investigatory fact-finding” efforts on his call with Mr. Raffensperger and members of his staff.

But the judge ruled that Mr. Graham could be asked about other things, including his “alleged efforts to encourage Secretary Raffensperger or others to throw out ballots or otherwise alter Georgia’s election practices and procedures.” The judge said that Mr. Graham could also be asked about “alleged communications and coordination with the Trump campaign and its postelection efforts in Georgia.”

The appeals court lined up behind the lower court in its ruling on Thursday, finding that Judge May had correctly reasoned that “any non-investigatory conduct covered by the subpoena was not protected” by the Speech and Debate Clause, adding that there was “genuine dispute about whether Senator Graham’s phone calls with Georgia election officials were investigatory.”

The appeals court also noted that Mr. Graham, during the course of his testimony, would have the ability to raise issues about whether specific questions posed to him ran afoul of his constitutional protections.

The Georgia investigation is being led by Ms. Willis, a Democrat who has said that she is looking into the possibility of a broad, multidefendant racketeering or conspiracy case. Nearly 20 people have been identified as targets of the inquiry, meaning they could eventually be charged. Among them are Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former New York mayor who made a number of false statements before Georgia lawmakers after the election.

Mr. Giuliani is among dozens of people who have been called to give testimony before the secret grand jury. On Thursday, a person familiar with the investigation who requested anonymity to discuss the secretive proceedings said that former Senator Kelly Loeffler testified before the special grand jury in August.

Mr. Graham’s legal team includes Donald F. McGahn II, who was a White House counsel under Mr. Trump. The legal team has said that prosecutors have indicated to the team that Mr. Graham is a witness, not a target, of the investigation. But other people tied to the Georgia inquiry have said they were told they were merely witnesses, only to be told later that they were targets facing possible indictment.