Graham asks SCOTUS to block a subpoena from an Atlanta grand jury investigating 2020 election interference.
A subpoena from an Atlanta grand jury seeking the identity of Donald Trump Jr.’s “long-time business associate” was blocked by the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday, according to a lawyer for the committee that requested the information.
The case in question is led by Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, who has been sued by Trump Jr. over his decision to withhold a meeting with the president’s son from a July 2018 meeting with a Russian lawyer in June 2017. Trump Jr. has said he did not provide the meeting to get dirt on Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential election.
In a request for an emergency stay filed with the Supreme Court on Thursday, attorney Ben Ginsberg cited the “very limited and peculiar” nature of the committee’s request and the special counsel’s office’s “diligence and effort,” as well as the president’s repeated denials over the past several years during his election. Ginsberg argued that Trump Jr.’s name was already protected by the committee’s subpoena.
“I want to emphasize that in this case, the request is very limited and peculiar in that the only person who is seeking the president’s ‘most recent business associate’ is the chair of the same political committee which requested the special counsel’s appointment, the president,” Ginsberg argued.
“The sole reason for this demand is to help the chair of that committee who has been implicated in two criminal matters,” Ginsberg continued. “By limiting the request to the president’s business associate, the chair is denying himself the opportunity to be able to investigate the president’s business for potentially criminal activity.”
Ginsberg added that the Supreme Court “simply cannot sanction such a naked request for a privilege that is well-established.”
A representative for Trump Jr., however, told The Daily Beast that the lawyer’s concerns were “ludicrous.”
“Just because the Supreme Court allows someone to ask for grand jury information in an election case does not mean that it’s allowed to issue a green light for grand jury testimony for someone else—