Today the Supreme Court told Lindsey Graham to quit whining and get his ass in front of the Fulton Grand Jury.
The Supreme Court did reiterate what lower courts held: that Graham can maintain limited, but significant secrecy about his actions in 2020.
Questions that he argues deal with issues around “legislative activity” can remain privileged, the court said — protected by the Constitution’s speech or debate clause. Because of that, the court said, halting the subpoena was “not necessary.”
So he’ll claim it was all “legislative activity,” even though a U.S. senator from South Carolina has absolutely no business with how Georgia runs its elections.
Also, yesterday John Roberts decided put the brakes on the House accessing Trump’s tax returns. “Roberts ordered the House to reply to Trump by Nov. 10 — two days after the upcoming midterm elections.”
That’s the first thing I thought when I heard about the delay — Roberts wants to be sure nobody gets Trump’s tax returns until after the midterms. I would be hugely surprised if SCOTUS stops the tax returns from getting to the House entirely, I doubt anyone the Court’s Republicans conservatives feel any loyalty to Donald Trump, just to the GOP.
Trump has a history of successfully delaying legal actions against him. Roberts is likely waiting to see if the republicans regain control of the House. If the republicans will control the House starting in January, all Roberts & the Supremes need to do is delay into January and 'the problem' goes away.
I'm not sure the elites in the Republican party want the problem to go away. They might prefer to put Trump away somewhere (all the while protesting otherwise) so he's not dominating their party any more. Trump's base will be angry, but they can always blame Democrats. And I think the DoJ is going to indict Trump on the documents case, if not January 6 also, sooner rather than later.
I've written some long 'comments' trying to introduce a larger picture. Rachel Maddow did, I think yesterday. It's only a few minutes and only about legal headaches that hit Trump yesterday. Things are not "going away."
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/criminal-trial-trumps-business-begins-legal-woes-mount-rcna55001
Regarding Lindsey Graham, he took it to the USSC for a reason. Even with the previous ruling that Roberts confirmed, Senator Graham seems to think he's at risk if he has to show. Yes, I agree Graham will try to use the partial shield of "legislative activity" to avoid answering. I'm not sure about the specific rules in GA, but I think he won't have a lawyer present in the Grand Jury Room.
So far, all the people who signed the fake electors' document that went to the National Archives are notified targets. So has Rudy – it looks like he sold them on the idea. Factor in the Eastman emails, Rudy's participation in other states presenting near-identical fake elector's documents and you have conspiracy. But it looks like GA is going after Trump himself.
What does the prosecutor want from Senator Graham? My guess: confirmation that Trump put his golf buddy up to the calls he made to interfere in the count of votes in GA. The problem is (for Miss Lindsey) it's true. To deny it is perjury. To take the 5th is an admission of guilt. If the prosecution of Trump is built around a RICO-style mobster (Trump) pulling everyone's strings for motives Trump was at the center of, Graham becomes a player in that web, and potentially criminally liable.
Is this the template of Trumpism disintegrating? Lindsey wants to be perceived as in Trump's inner circle but he wants to be outside of Trump's criminal activities. If you listened to the Maddow clip I put up a link to, how much of that can anyone be associated with (or pretend to ignore)? People around Trump are going to jail – for real and for certain – others are going to be charged. I think we'll see prominent former Trumpsters going to great lengths not to be photographed with Trump – not attend rallies and disengage.