When Donald Trump whined over the holiday weekend about being “on trial,” it served as a reminder that the former president is dealing with legal troubles on multiple fronts. At last count, there’s a federal criminal investigation into his media business, a civil investigation into the Trump Organization, and a district attorney investigation into his business.
But in case these probes weren’t quite enough, hanging overhead is the criminal investigation in Fulton County, Georgia, where District Attorney Fani Willis is scrutinizing the former president’s efforts to overturn the election results he didn’t like. Indeed, earlier this year, the prosecutor was granted a special grand jury to proceed with the case.
As NBC News reported, that investigation appears to be advancing in ways Trump and his allies aren’t going to like.
The Georgia special grand jury hearing evidence in an investigation into possible 2020 election interference by former President Donald Trump and others has issued subpoenas to Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and key members of Trump’s legal team, including Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman, NBC News has confirmed. The Fulton County special grand jury also subpoenaed lawyers Jenna Ellis, Cleta Mitchell and Kenneth Chesebro, all of whom worked with Trump as he contested the election results.
It’s quite a list. The fact that prominent members of Trump’s legal team, for example, have been subpoenaed in an intensifying criminal probe is itself extraordinary. The fact that Mitchell was included was of particular interest given that she was on the Jan. 2 call when the then-president urged Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” the votes necessary to flip the state’s election results.
What’s more, Chesebro’s inclusion on the list stood out, in large part because the Trump lawyer was directly involved in the fake elector scheme, suggesting it’s a part of the local prosecutor’s probe.
But the subpoena for Graham was the biggest surprise.
In case anyone needs a refresher about the South Carolina senator’s role in the larger mess, let’s circle back to our earlier coverage and review how we arrived at this point.
About a week after the 2020 presidential race was called, The Washington Post reported that Georgia’s Republican secretary of state said Graham — at the time, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee — contacted him directly to question the validity of legally cast absentee ballots.
Raffensperger said at the time that Graham asked about the integrity of the signature-matching process and the state official’s authority to reject certain mail-in ballots.
The article added that the Georgia secretary of state was “stunned that Graham appeared to suggest that he find a way to toss legally cast ballots.”
For his part, Graham conceded that he had a conversation with Raffensperger about ballots, but the senator denied that he suggested throwing out legally cast ballots, calling the allegation “ridiculous.” The Trump-allied senator went on to tell reporters, “If he feels threatened by that conversation, he’s got a problem.” Raffensperger nevertheless insisted his version of events is the correct one, telling CNN in November 2020 that the “implication” of Graham’s message was, “Look hard and see how many ballots you could throw out.” According to yesterday’s subpoena, the Republican senator “made at least two telephone calls” to Raffensperger and his staff — that’s more than we previously knew — and during the calls, Graham “questioned Secretary Raffensperger and his staff about reexamining certain absentee ballots cast in Georgia in order to explore the possibility of a more favorable outcome for former President Donald Trump.” The subpoena added that the South Carolinian “also made reference to allegations of widespread voter fraud in the November 2020 election in Georgia,” despite reality. In case this isn’t obvious, it’s worth emphasizing that a subpoena shouldn’t necessarily be seen as proof that someone is a subject of a criminal inquiry. That said, it’s a safe bet none of the folks on Willis’ subpoena list was pleased with yesterday’s news.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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