Although a federal appeals court ruled unanimously last week that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) must testify before a grand jury regarding possible efforts to overturn the 2020 election, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas temporarily blocked it Monday.
Why was he able to do it?
According to Axios, Thomas was able to order a stay on the subpoena for Graham’s testimony unilaterally, as he handles emergency requests from Georgia. Graham filed an emergency request for the stay and injunction Friday.
Graham was called to testify before the Atlanta grand jury because he reportedly pressed Republican Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to reverse former President Donald Trump’s 2020 loss in the state, said Axios. Even before the election started, Trump and his supporters began spreading unfounded claims of election fraud. These claims have played into an investigation of the deadly Capitol riot last January.
“Graham had argued that a sitting senator is shielded from these types of investigations,” Axios explained. Before Thomas granted the stay for Graham, the appeals court said the senator had “failed to demonstrate that this approach will violate his rights under the Speech and Debate Clause.”
Thomas has his own connections to efforts aimed at overturning the 2020 election results. His wife, conservative activist Virginia “Ginni” Thomas admitted to attending Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally in Washington D.C. on Jan. 6.
She also allegedly encouraged former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to overturn the 2020 election results and emailed 29 different Arizona Republican lawmakers about overturning current President Joe Biden’s victory.
Ginni Thomas testified before the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot last month.
When his wife’s connections to false claims of voter fraud were revealed earlier this year, more than half of Americans polled said they thought Justice Thomas should recuse himself from all cases related to the 2020 election.
In June, another poll found that 61% of Americans thought Congress should launch an ethics investigation regarding the justice.
Both Thomas and Graham also supported the unpopular Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Supreme Court opinion this summer, which the Pew Research Center said precipitated a sharp decline in positive views of the nation’s highest court. Thomas wrote a concurring opinion for the ruling and Graham announced a plan for a national abortion ban in September.
“Thomas’ move is an administrative stay that was most likely issued Monday to give the Supreme Court justices more time to consider the dispute,” said CNN of the justice’s stay order. The Georgia investigators seeking Graham’s testimony were asked to submit a response by Thursday, said the outlet.
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