Washington Post: Georgia prosecution investigates phone call between Lindsey Graham and Brad Raffensperger

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Citing a person familiar with the probe, the paper reported that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis will review the call Graham made to Raffensperger after the election.

The call will be “reviewed,” the person familiar with the investigation told the Post, warning that many details of the call and whether Graham violated the law remains unclear.

Raffensperger told the Post on Nov. 16 that, in an interview days before, Graham had expressed doubts about Georgia’s signature matching law, as well as the possibility that biased polling stations could have counted the ballots with inconsistent signatures.
Graham, a South Carolina Republican who then chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee, also asked if Raffensperger could throw out all post-in ballots from counties that showed higher rates of unparalleled signatures, the Republican secretary of state told the Post at the time. Graham has denied the claims made by Raffensperger, who has been responsible for his account.

There are no credible allegations of voting issues that would have affected the election, as confirmed by dozens of judges, governors and election officials, the Electoral College, the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, and the U.S. Supreme Court.

In a statement to CNN, Graham spokesman Kevin Bishop called allegations that Graham’s call was inappropriate “ridiculous.”

Senator Graham asked how the signature verification process worked, Bishop said. “He has never asked the Secretary of State to disqualify a vote cast by anyone. The timing of this is also pretty curious. It seems like an opaque attempt to marginalize anyone who helps President Trump.”

News of Willis’s decision to investigate the appeal between Graham and Raffensperger comes as the South Carolina Republican serves as a juror in Trump’s ongoing impeachment trial in the Senate.
In addition, CNN reported on Monday that Raffensperger’s office has launched an investigation into Trump’s attempts to reverse the state’s election results, including a phone call in which Trump urged Raffensperger to “ find ” votes following his loss to the then-president-elect. Joe Biden, according to an audio recording first released by The Washington Post and later obtained by CNN.

A source familiar with the Georgia secretary of state investigation told CNN on Friday that they are not investigating Graham’s appeal.

A spokesperson for Willis told the Post on Friday that the agency is investigating all attempts to improperly influence the election administration. Willis announced on Wednesday that her office would investigate possible criminal attempts to influence the state’s election results, including Trump’s calls to Raffensperger and the lead investigator of the state election, the paper reported.

CNN’s Jason Morris, Sarah Fortinsky, Chandelis Duster and Devan Cole contributed to this report.

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