Lindsey Graham Ordered to Testify Before Special Grand Jury in Georgia

Lindsey Graham has been ordered to testify before a special grand jury as part of its investigation into potential criminal interference by the Trump campaign in the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. A Fulton County judge on Monday declared the senator, who was among eight people in Donald Trump's inner circle subpoenaed last week in the probe, is a "necessary and material witness" and ordered him to travel to Georgia to testify on August 2, WSB-TV reports. The order says the grand jury must hear about the two alleged phone calls Graham made to Brad Raffensperger, Georgia's secretary of state, in the wake of the election, Fox 5 Atlanta reports.

Specifically, per the order, the grand jury wants to hear about allegations that Graham asked Raffensperger to start "reexamining certain absentee ballots cast in Georgia in order to explore the possibility of a more favorable outcome for former President Donald Trump." But WSB notes there's still a "long legal process" involved in actually forcing Graham out of Washington, DC, to testify, and that the issue will have to wind its way through the DC courts. The Fulton County DA has said the probe is delving into what she calls "a multi-state, coordinated plan by the Trump Campaign to influence the results of the November 2020 election in Georgia and elsewhere." (More Lindsey Graham stories.)