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Must appear as a witness: Lindsey Graham
Photo: SARAH SILBIGER / REUTERS
The prominent US Senator Lindsey Graham wanted to avoid having to testify in the investigation into possible interference with the 2020 presidential election in the state of Georgia.
The Republican from South Carolina even went to the US Supreme Court after an appeals court in Georgia dismissed his lawyers' objections.
Graham's side had previously argued before the Court of Appeals that as a member of Congress, he was protected by the US Constitution from questioning in the investigation.
Before the Supreme Court, the lawyers had resorted to the same reasoning of immunity.
The judges, however, denied Graham's emergency motion to stay the court order requiring him to appear as a witness.
Telephone calls with the chief election commissioner
Graham was a close confidant of the then US President during Donald Trump's tenure.
Specifically, his survey is likely to be about phone calls that Graham is said to have had in the weeks after Trump's election defeat in 2020 with the chief election supervisor in Georgia, Brad Raffensperger, and his employees.
Georgia was one of the states in which the election had decided in favor of Trump's Democratic challenger Joe Biden.
Prosecutor Fani Willis in Fulton County, Georgia, launched an investigation into the 2020 election last year.
Possible attempts by Trump and his supporters to influence the lawful conduct of the election in the state should be examined - with the aim of overturning the result there.
Several Trump allies, including Graham, have been asked to testify before a jury that has now been set up.
Willis did not rule out subpoenaing Trump as well.
To this day, the ex-president claims without any evidence that he was deprived of a second term through fraud.
For weeks he tried to use questionable methods to subsequently overturn Biden's election victory.
His camp also failed with dozens of lawsuits against election results in various states.
sak/dpa