亚特兰大-一家联邦上诉法院周日同意暂时搁置一家下级法院的命令，要求美国参议员林赛·格雷厄姆在一个特别大陪审团面前作证，该陪审团正在调查推翻唐纳德·特朗普s 2020总统选举格鲁吉亚的损失。
一张传票指示这位南卡罗来纳州共和党人周二在特别大陪审团面前出庭。
美国地区法官利·马丁·梅(Leigh Martin May)上周一拒绝了格雷厄姆撤销传票的请求，并于周五拒绝了他在上诉期间搁置她的决定的努力。格雷厄姆的律师随后向美国第11巡回上诉法院提起上诉。
周日，上诉法院的三名法官小组发布了这项命令，暂时中止了梅拒绝撤销传票的命令。该小组将此案发回五月，以决定传票是否应该部分撤销或修改，因为美国宪法赋予国会议员保护。
根据上诉法院的命令，一旦梅决定这一问题，该案件将返回第11巡回法院进一步审议。
格雷厄姆的代表周日没有立即回应寻求对上诉裁决置评的消息。富尔顿县地方检察官法妮·威利斯的发言人拒绝置评。
威利斯在去年年初开始调查，这是由特朗普和佐治亚州国务卿布拉德·拉芬斯佩格在2021年1月2日的电话引发的。在那次谈话中，特朗普表示，Raffensperger可以“找到”推翻他在该州微弱失利所需的选票。
威利斯和她的团队表示，他们想问格雷厄姆关于2020年大选后不久他打给拉芬斯珀格和他的工作人员的两个电话。在这些电话中，格雷厄姆问及“重新检查佐治亚州的某些缺席投票，以探索对前总统唐纳德·特朗普更有利的结果的可能性，”威利斯在一份寻求迫使他作证的请愿书中写道。
格雷厄姆还“提到了对2020年11月佐治亚州大选中普遍存在选民欺诈的指控，这与特朗普竞选团队的已知附属机构发表的公开声明一致，”她写道。
在本月早些时候举行的关于格雷厄姆撤销传票的动议的听证会上，威利斯的团队认为，格雷厄姆可能能够提供关于任何协调努力在多大程度上影响佐治亚州2020年大选结果的见解。
Sen. Graham testimony in Georgia election probe put on hold
ATLANTA --A federal appeals court on Sunday agreed to temporarily put on hold a lower court's order requiring that U.S. Sen.Lindsey Grahamtestify before a special grand jury that’s investigating illegal plots to overturnDonald Trump's 2020 presidentialelectionloss in Georgia.
A subpoena had instructed the South Carolina Republican to appear before the special grand jury on Tuesday.
U.S. District Judge Leigh Martin May had denied Graham's request last Monday to quash his subpoena and on Friday rejected his effort to put her decision on hold while he appealed. Graham's lawyers then appealed to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
On Sunday, a three-judge panel of the appeals court issued the order temporarily pausing May's order declining to quash the subpoena. The panel sent the case back to May to decide whether the subpoena should be partially quashed or modified because of protections granted to members of Congress by the U.S. Constitution.
Once May decides that issue, the case will return to the 11th Circuit for further consideration, according to the appeals court order.
Graham’s representatives did not immediately respond Sunday to messages seeking comment on the appellate ruling. A spokesperson for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis declined to comment.
Willis opened the investigation early last year, prompted by a Jan. 2, 2021, phone call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. During that conversation, Trump suggested Raffensperger could “find” the votes needed to overturn his narrow loss in the state.
Willis and her team have said they want to ask Graham about two phone calls they say he made to Raffensperger and his staff shortly after the 2020 general election. During those calls, Graham asked about “reexamining certain absentee ballots cast in Georgia in order to explore the possibility of a more favorable outcome for former President Donald Trump,” Willis wrote in a petition seeking to compel his testimony.
Graham also “made reference to allegations of widespread voter fraud in the November 2020 election in Georgia, consistent with public statements made by known affiliates of the Trump Campaign,” she wrote.
During a hearing earlier this month on Graham's motion to quash his subpoena, Willis' team argued that Graham may be able to provide insight into the extent of any coordinated efforts to influence the results of the 2020 general election in Georgia.
