Lindsey Graham hires former Trump White House counsel Don McGahn in Georgia election investigation

Former Trump White House Counsel Don McGahn will be among the lawyers representing Sen. Lindsey Graham in his effort to block a subpoena from a Georgia special grand jury investigating Donald Trump's behavior after losing the 2020 election, court records show.

The South Carolina Republican is among a slew of Trump allies subpoenaed since May by the Fulton County special grand jury, which has also heard from Georgia state officials who rebuffed the former president's attempts to overturn the election.

Graham was a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee when McGahn shepherded through the nominations of Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. Graham later chaired the committee. McGahn now works for the law firm Jones Day, where he "advises clients on high-stakes matters that require navigating and challenging assertions of government authority," according to his company biography.

A spokesperson for Jones Day did not return a request for comment.

Graham originally challenged the subpoena in federal court in South Carolina, but that motion was quickly dismissed after attorneys for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis argued Georgia is the proper jurisdiction. Graham's subpoena calls for him to testify in August, and Judge Leigh Martin May has set an expedited schedule, requiring both sides to file arguments this week.

Prosecutors alleged in Graham's subpoena that he spoke to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger after the 2020 election and questioned him "about reexamining certain absentee ballots cast in Georgia in order to explore the possibility of a more favorable outcome" for Trump. 

President Joe Biden won Georgia by just under 12,000 votes, or 0.5%. Graham has acknowledged the phone calls in the past and dismissed any allegations of wrongdoing, telling "Face the Nation" in January that he "asked about how the system worked when it came to mail-in voting, balloting."

Graham's attorneys argued in their motion that he was performing "legislative acts" in inquiring about the election.

"In making these calls, after the election, Senator Graham was engaged in quintessentially legislative factfinding—both to help him form election-related legislation, including in his role as then-Chair of the Judiciary Committee, and to help inform his vote to certify the election," they wrote.