Ethics complaint filed against SC’s Graham over phone call with GA Secretary of State
Three lawyers are asking the U.S. Senate Ethics Committee to investigate Sen. Lindsey Graham over his reported conversation with the Georgia Secretary of State about mail-ballots for a possible ethics violation.
Walter Shaub, a former director of the U.S. Government’s ethics office; Richard Painter, who was the chief ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush; and Claire Finkelstein, the director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law, filed their complaint on Wednesday.
Graham, a staunch Trump ally, had a phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a fellow Republican, in which the senator allegedly asked Raffensperger about signatures not matching on absentee ballots and whether all mail-in ballots in counties with a high rate of mismatched signatures could be thrown out.
Raffensperger told the Washington Post he was stunned Graham would make the suggestion to toss legally cast ballots.
“If these allegations are true, Sen. Graham’s conduct constitutes an abuse of office and conduct unbecoming of a senator,” the complaint reads. “For the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee to suggest to a state Secretary of State that he refrain from counting lawful votes threatens the electoral process and damages representative democracy.”
Graham said assertions he tried to pressure Georgia to toss out legal ballots was “ridiculous” and he only wanted to learn about the protections states have for verifying the legitimacy of mail-in ballots.
In an interview with CNN, a Raffensperger staff member, who is mentioned in the complaint, said Graham asked if state officials could toss out ballots. However, discussions centered around whether a high-rate of mismatched signatures could lead to a court throwing out the ballots because there’s no way to separate the ballots deemed legal by a local election authority.
The Senate Ethics Committee office didn’t immediately confirm if it had received the complaint, first reported by the Associated Press and CNN.
“These are long-time vocal critics of both Sen. Graham and the Trump Administration,” said Graham spokesperson Kevin Bishop in an email. “Their complaint should be viewed in that light.”
Members of the so-called “Squad,” a group of progressive Democratic women in Congress including Ilhan Omar, of Minnesota; Rashida Talib, of Michigan; and Pramila Jayapal, of Washington, have even suggested Graham resign for his alleged actions.
“I can understand why the Squad doesn’t want me in the Senate — because I’m going to bury your agenda,” Graham tweeted. “You’re a bunch of Socialists. You would transform America and make it Venezuela. I’m gonna stand in your way. I’m not going anywhere!”
Some on social media have called for a criminal investigation into Graham.
Whether Graham did anything wrong depends on his intent and the wording he used, experts say.
“If someone calls a public official and tries to get them to mess with election results in a way that is not in accordance with the state’s laws for counting or excluding votes — and that is the person’s intent — the Georgia statute, as I read it, indicates those efforts are illegal,” said University of South Carolina Law School Professor Derek W. Black. “In other words, you can’t encourage someone to do anything other than follow the voting rules as written in Georgia The specific words that Sen. Graham used in that conversation would be crucially important, as would be his intent in using those words.”
In an interview, Black wouldn’t say whether there should be an investigation.
“I wasn’t on the phone so I can’t say which side of the line he’s on,” he said. “The sanctity of the vote is an incredibly serious matter, but whether it was actually threatened and further investigation is appropriate can only be answered by law enforcement officers in Georgia who have a better grasp on the facts than the rest of us.”
Reporter Emily Bohatch contributed to this article.
This story was originally published November 19, 2020 at 1:16 PM.
