Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas on Monday temporarily blocked Sen. Lindsey Graham’s testimony to a special grand jury investigating whether then-President Donald Trump and others illegally tried to influence the 2020 election in the state.
Thomas’ order is intended to prevent Fani Willis, Fulton County district attorney, from compelling Graham to testify while the Supreme Court weighs the senator’s request for a lengthier halt to the proceedings.
Willis has a deadline Thursday to tell the high court why Graham should have to answer the grand jury’s questions. Lower courts have ruled that his testimony can take place.
Thomas acted on his own, as the justice who handles emergency appeals from Georgia.
(AP)
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5 Responses
Will be interesting how the “originalist” justices will contort themselves to argue that the “speech and debate” clause can be stretched to include political communications with a President’s campaign staff about how to invalidate votes that a Republican governor and secretary of state had already concluded were legit.
GHD as usual lies through her lying teeth. No “contortions” are necessary to understand that the speech and debate clause includes anything that is within a congressman’s duties, and that includes exploring the validity of the electoral votes that congress was about to witness being counted.
Milhouse: When I get that type of visceral response from you, its clear you had to dig deep into your bag of rationalizations to explain how the S&D clause might be invoked to protect clearly non-legislative communications. Lets see how the courts decide. Graham himself is an attorney (albeit a somewhat mediocre JAG advocate) but clearly knew the line between legit oversight and political manipulation and borderline abetting fraud.
GH,
Plus, prosecutors have already been blocked from questioning Graham about the parts of the conversation that Milhouse is referring to.
But, Graham is 100% not shielded from the parts of the conversation that have to do with sedition and conspiracy against the government.
I assume the SCOTUS will agree with the ruling from the lower courts despite having a justice that has a deep conflict of interest voting on it.
“Last month, a district court judge said prosecutors could not question Graham about portions of the calls that were legislative fact-finding. But the judge said Willis’s team could explore coordination with the Trump campaign in its post-election efforts in Georgia, public statements regarding the 2020 election and any efforts to “cajole” or “exhort” Georgia election officials.
In its order Thursday, the 11th Circuit panel agreed with the lower court judge that those actions “could not qualify as legislative activities under any understanding of Supreme Court precedent.” Two of the three judges on the panel were nominated by Trump.
Graham may still assert his rights, the court noted, if there is a dispute about certain questions.”
Another vicious lying Democrat heard from. There were no “parts of the conversation that have to do with sedition and conspiracy against the government”! There was no sedition, no such conspiracy, and no conversation about such things. The CORRUPT POLITICAL OPERATIVES on the district court and the 11th circuit disregarded all precedent and the constitution itself. As a senator Graham was going to have to decide whether to accept the votes of the purported electors from Georgia; therefore ANY conversation aimed at ascertaining their credentials is automatically related to his legislative function and he cannot be called to account for it in ANY OTHER PLACE. That means a grand jury, a court, a committee, or even the Supreme Court itself. Only the senate itself may question him about it.
Who nominated a judge says nothing at all about whether the judge is honest, let alone about which party they may be working for.
Finally, Jackk’s insinuation that Justice Thomas has “a deep conflict of interest” is not only a filthy disgusting lie, just like every word he writes on any topic, but is also a serious aveira. Jackk is a rasha for making such a wicked accusation, and has no portion in the next world.