But partisans quickly pounced to heap scorn and downplay Graham’s alleged comments. senator, a Republican at that, on voting fraud-related felony charges sounds a bit like a plot from an Aaron Sorkin creative effort where the Democrats ultimately decide to let the wayward GOPer off the hook. Just posting this random provision of Georgia election law for no particular reason: /RdepRhGjeqĪndrew Weissmann, former top lieutenant to then-special counsel Robert Mueller, currently prone to shoot from the hip, decided to just say it outright: “This is what we in the legal world call a felony.”Īn investigation into a sitting U.S. University of Texas Law Professor Steve Vladeck all-but accused the South Carolina Republican of breaking Georgia election law: Others were a bit more forthcoming in their estimation of what Graham’s ask might actually mean in legal terms. “The Justice Department should find out.”

Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), a top ally to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and himself a member of Democratic Party leadership via Twitter. “Did Lindsey Graham illegally pressure the Georgia Secretary of State to rig the election after the fact?” asked Rep. “This is both outrageous and should be investigated by the Senate Ethics Committee,” he tweeted on Monday evening. Top Democratic Party and Biden campaign election lawyer Marc Elias, a veteran of voting rights litigation, also called for Graham to be investigated.

“Georgians all Americans deserve to know what happened, not just be left to speculate over a matter so serious.”ĭemocrats were quick to accuse Graham of perfidy. Attorney and current University of Alabama Law Professor Joyce White Vance via Twitter on Tuesday. “There is more than sufficient predication here to open a federal investigation,” asserted f ormer U.S. “Here is something that the Justice Department should indeed open an inquiry into.” “It is deeply troubling,” said Kristen Clarke of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law during a Monday evening appearance on MSNBC. That line of thought quickly picked up steam among legal experts. “I wonder who Senator Graham spoke to between the two calls?” asked Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) Research Director Robert Maguire via Twitter.įormer White House ethics attorney Walter Shaub was similarly interested and said that an investigation into Graham “is needed.” “Perfect call?” Tulane Law Professor and election law expert Ross Garber tweeted–a reference to President Donald Trump’s phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which ultimately led to Trump’s impeachment in the U.S. Questions immediately swirled–and so did the speculation. Gabriel Sterling, Georgia’s voting system manager, confirmed to NBC News that Graham brought up the subject of throwing out ballots from “whole counties” with high rates of signature rejections. And there was a witness during the call in question.

The request to toss ballots “from counties with higher rates of signature errors” reportedly occurred during the second call. On Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Graham and Raffensperger actually spoke twice on the phone–on the same day. On Monday, the Palmetto State institution found himself in the middle of a scandal after Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger accused Graham of asking him to throw out valid ballots in the Peach State during a recent phone call. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) may have made a huge mistake.

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