Sen. Lindsey Graham agreed Tuesday to accept service of a subpoena for his testimony before a Georgia grand jury investigating possible criminal meddling in the 2020 election by then-President Donald Trump.
But Graham, R-S.C., still retained his right to challenge the legality of the subpoena, a court filing showed.
The Atlanta-based grand jury is seeking evidence related to efforts by Trump and others to get Georgia officials to overturn the election won there by President Joe Biden.
Graham’s agreement to accept the subpoena likely will streamline his dispute with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis over the demand for his testimony. Asked Tuesday afternoon about the development, Graham told NBC News that Fulton County hasn’t “even tried to subpoena me. I just want to get it done.”
The Republican lawmaker, one of Trump’s closest confidants in the Senate, had asked a federal judge in South Carolina last week to quash the subpoena.
But Willis in a court filing Monday told the judge that Graham’s challenge was both too early, and not filed in the right court. She said the fact that Graham had not yet been served with the subpoena made any motion to quash it premature, and that he might not be served in South Carolina.
On Tuesday, attorneys for both parties told the judge that Willis and Graham “have reached an agreement to withdraw all process and proceedings pending” before the South Carolina district court.
“Senator Graham has agreed to accept service of a subpoena for testimony from the Fulton County Special Purpose Grand Jury in Atlanta, Georgia, without waiving any challenges or any applicable privilege and/or immunity,” the lawyers wrote in the court filing.
Any future challenges to the subpoena will be pursued in Georgia, either in Fulton County Superior Court or U.S. District Court in Atlanta.
The subpoena issued to Graham said he made at least two calls to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and his staff, asking about “reexamining certain absentee ballots cast in Georgia in order to explore the possibility of a more favorable outcome for former President Donald Trump.”
A hearing that was set for Wednesday morning in the South Carolina court was canceled.
Graham is not the only lawmaker embroiled in the Georgia election probe: Rep. Jody Hice, R-Ga., on Monday asked the Atlanta federal court to quash a subpoena for his testimony that was issued late last month.
Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s former personal lawyer and the ex-mayor of New York City, was also subpoenaed as part of the probe. So was the lawyer John Eastman, who drafted plans for then-Vice President Mike Pence to reject key electoral votes for Biden. Eastman argued after the 2020 election that Georgia officials had a “duty” to replace the Democratic presidential electors, citing claims of voter fraud.
On Tuesday, attorneys for 11 of Georgia’s so-called alternative slate of fake presidential electors filed their own motion to quash subpoenas to testify before the grand jury, a court filing in Fulton County Superior Court showed. The lawyers called the subpoenas “unreasonable and oppressive.”
