A watchdog group has demanded that Senator Lindsey Graham, RS.C., a close ally of Donald Trump, be removed from the Senate Judiciary Committee for his attempt to pressure a Georgia election official to reverse the former president’s impressive defeat in the Peach state.
THE Project checks and balances (CBP), a non-partisan investigative group, wrote to Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, requesting that Graham immediately resign his position on the prestigious Judicial Committee, which oversees the appointment of federal judges, including Supreme Court judges.
“My question to you is this,” CBP Executive Director Scott Peterson wrote to McConnell in a letter sent Monday night that was provided to the Salon. “Is it appropriate for a senator to serve on the Senate Judiciary Committee when he is being investigated for such a serious crime?”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Last month, the district attorney for Fulton County, Georgia, was investigating whether Graham had violated any state electoral laws when the South Carolina Republican called Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, days after the November election. Graham, according to Raffensperger, asked him to throw away absenteeism bills to narrow Trump’s deficit.
Graham has denied the allegation for too long, saying he was simply asking about the signature matching process during the Georgia recount then underway. But Peterson feels the investigation is a reason for McConnell to remove Graham from the powerful judiciary panel – which he chaired at the previous Congress – at least until the criminal investigation is completed.
“Someone who engages in this type of activity does not belong to the United States Senate Judiciary Committee,” Peterson told Salon. “In this country, every vote counts. The right to vote is the backbone of our democracy. And instead of fighting for the constitution and democracy, Senator Graham called … Raffensperger to try to get him to throw away votes and defraud the election. “
A spokesman for Graham noted that this was CBP’s second effort to achieve it, the first being earlier this year when the group wanted lawmakers to pressure attorney general designate Merrick Garland to commit to the Graham and Trump investigation. McConnell’s office did not respond to Salon’s request for comment.
When the allegations about Raffensperger’s call first surfaced in November, Graham called the claims that he tried to alter the election result “ridiculous.” Raffensperger rejected Graham’s alleged guidance, but if he had followed it and disqualified the ballots that had been legally posted, Raffensperger, who is also a Republican, would have committed fraud himself.
“What I’m trying to find out is how do you check the signatures on the postal ballots in those states that are just the center of attention?” Graham told reporters in November, while trying to justify the content and context of Raffensperger’s call.
Graham’s alleged involvement, which was first publicized in a Interview with Raffensperger with the Washington Post, it is reportedly part of a broader criminal investigation by Fulton County prosecutor Fani Willis, to see if then President Trump violated any law by pressuring Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to win the state.
“I ask you to ask Senator Graham to resign from the Judiciary Committee until all investigations into his conduct in Georgia are complete,” Peterson wrote to McConnell. “If we want to restore public faith in our democracy, this step will be a big step towards restoring the idea that no one is above the law.”