ATLANTA — Days after a Supreme Court justice blocked Sen. Lindsey Graham's testimony to a Fulton County special purpose grand jury investigating possible interference in the 2020 election, the district attorney overseeing the potentially criminal case has filed a response urging him to reconsider.
Justice Clarence Thomas' order on Monday temporarily prevents Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from asking Graham to testify in Georgia as the Supreme Court weighs the South Carolina senator's request for a lengthier halt to the proceedings. Thomas is the justice who handles emergency appeals from Georgia.
Willis met her Thursday deadline to respond to the court with a 27-page filing, urging the Supreme Court not to stand in the way of Graham’s testimony.
She said that if the high court grants Graham's request to block the grand jury subpoena it would "be unavoidably harmful to the administration of its investigation," further outlining that delaying the investigation would hurt public interest.
In the filing, Willis emphasized that the Eleventh Circuit has approved the process of questioning and the special purpose grand jury should be allowed to proceed accordingly.
Thomas' order required Willis to further explain why Graham's testimony is necessary.
Willis laid out her arguments, citing the now infamous call between then-President Donald Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. Willis said the grand jury is seeking testimony from Graham, as he participated in at least two phone calls with Raffensperger around the same time in November 2020.
The district attorney provided supporting evidence that after the calls became public knowledge, there were inconsistencies about what Graham actually said on the phone. Graham suggested Georgia could invalidate mail-in ballots, court records show. She's hoping a testimony under oath can sort out the truth.
"Senator Graham directly contradicted Secretary Raffensperger and Mr. Sterling, denying that he ever made suggestions for invalidating ballots," Willis wrote, in part. "Over the next several weeks, Senator Graham continued to make public statements and comments regarding the 2020 election and purported election fraud or malfeasance."
Apart from the importance of his testimony, Willis dedicated a section of her response to outline her argument that "there is no likelihood Senator Graham will suffer 'irreparable harm'" from testifying.
On the other hand, if the court grants his request, the grand jury will be "foreclosed indefinitely from pursuing unique information, analyzing any resulting evidence or using the Senator's testimony to explore additional routes of valid inquiry," according to the filing.
Willis highlighted in the filing that the grand jury was empaneled to sit for a calendar year from May 2022 to April 2023. She said if the justices side with Graham's request or prolong the matter it's unlikely the grand jury will get all the necessary testimony within the timeframe. It's not worth delaying the work of the panel as Graham presents only "the remote possibility of harm," the district attorney's response said.
"With the framework for a logical and constitutionally-supported form of questioning already in place, the Special Purpose Grand Jury respectfully requests that Your Honor deny the Senator’s application and allow the Grand Jury to continue its investigation unhindered by unnecessary delay," court documents read.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
