- Jason Kennedy praises Ashley Graham for handling Hugh Grant’s Oscars ‘nonsense’ Page Six
- Hugh Grant’s awkward Oscars red carpet interview with Ashley Graham divides opinion CNN
- Hugh Grant did nothing wrong in Ashley Graham Oscars interview — she did New York Post
- Hugh Grant Has Literally Told Us That He’s A “Nasty Piece Of Work” And Admitted That His Women Costars Hate Him, So We Shouldn’t Be Surprised By His “Rude” Oscars Interview BuzzFeed News
- Piers Morgan awards Hugh Grant ‘Douche of the Day’ Sky News Australia
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Tag Archives: Graham
Hugh Grant accused of ‘obnoxious’ behaviour to Ashley Graham during ‘disaster’ Oscars red carpet interview – The Independent
- Hugh Grant accused of ‘obnoxious’ behaviour to Ashley Graham during ‘disaster’ Oscars red carpet interview The Independent
- Hugh Grant’s awkward Oscars red carpet interview with Ashley Graham divides opinion CNN
- Hugh Grant did nothing wrong in Ashley Graham Oscars interview — she did New York Post
- Piers Morgan awards Hugh Grant ‘Douche of the Day’ Sky News Australia
- Hugh Grant Has Literally Told Us That He’s A “Nasty Piece Of Work” And Admitted That His Women Costars Hate Him, So We Shouldn’t Be Surprised By His “Rude” Oscars Interview BuzzFeed News
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Chelsea must regroup and attack Borussia Dortmund at home — Graham Potter – The Athletic
- Chelsea must regroup and attack Borussia Dortmund at home — Graham Potter The Athletic
- Borussia Dortmund vs. Chelsea: Extended Highlights | UCL Round of 16 – Leg 1 | CBS Sports Golazo CBS Sports Golazo
- How did Enzo end up having to defend Adeyemi on Borussia Dortmund’s only goal? We Ain’t Got No History
- “Getting that chemistry” – Chelsea man says they’ve ‘taken another step’ forward despite loss Chelsea News
- Chelsea’s new signings starting to settle despite poor results – Havertz Reuters
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Lindsey Graham testifies before Georgia grand jury in election probe
A sheriff said that Graham entered the courthouse around 8 a.m.
A spokesman for Graham did not respond to a request for comment on the grand jury proceedings, which are legally secret. A spokesman for the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Graham’s testimony follows an extended legal challenge to block his appearance that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which this month declined to overturn lower court rulings requiring him to appear.
The South Carolina Republican and Trump confidant was first subpoenaed in July by the Fulton County district attorney’s office, which sought to question Graham about phone calls he made to Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state, in the weeks after the 2020 election, and other issues related to the election.
Trump personally urged Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to overturn his defeat in the state, where Biden claimed victory by fewer than 12,000 votes. Trump has insisted that the election there was marred by fraud, although multiple legal inquiries have found no evidence of that.
Raffensperger later told The Washington Post he felt pressured by other Republicans, including Graham, who he said echoed Trump’s claims about voting irregularities in the state. He claimed that Graham, on one call, appeared to be asking him to find a way to set aside legally cast ballots.
Graham and his attorneys have strongly rejected that characterization, describing the senator’s interactions with Raffensperger as “investigatory phone calls” that were meant to inform his decision-making on whether to vote to certify the election for Biden and to inform other Senate work.
In court filings, Graham has claimed that his actions were legitimate legislative activity protected by the Constitution’s “speech or debate clause” and that he should not be required to answer questions from a grand jury.
In September, U.S. District Judge Leigh Martin May ruled that Fulton County prosecutors could not question Graham about portions of his calls that were legislative fact-finding.
But May cleared the way for prosecutors to question Graham about his coordination with the Trump campaign on post-election efforts in Georgia. The judge also said Graham also could be asked about his public statements about the 2020 election and “any alleged efforts to ‘cajole’ or encourage” Georgia election officials “to throw out ballots or otherwise alter Georgia’s election practices and procedures.”
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit later upheld that lower court ruling. The Supreme Court rejected a final appeal by Graham this month, paving the way for his appearance this week. Graham’s attorneys have said he has been told he is a witness, not a target, in the Fulton County investigation.
Graham’s testimony came as the grand jury appears to be nearing a conclusion in its work. Jurors have heard testimony from several Trump lawyers, including Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman and Boris Epshteyn. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R), who also unsuccessfully sought to quash a subpoena in the case, appeared before the panel last week.
District Attorney Fani T. Willis also has sought testimony from other high-profile Trump advisers including Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows; former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former House speaker Newt Gingrich. All three continue to pursue legal efforts to quash their subpoenas — ongoing appeals that could delay proceedings.
The 23-person grand jury is authorized to meet until May 2023. But Willis said earlier this year that she hoped the panel would wrap up its work by the end of this year. The panel does not have the power to issue indictments, but would make its recommendations in a report to Willis, who would then weigh potential charges.
During a court hearing in Florida last week where Flynn was challenging his subpoena, Assistant Fulton County District Attorney Will Wooten told a judge there are “very few” witnesses remaining.
“The likelihood is that this grand jury is not going to be hearing testimony much longer,” Wooten said, according to CNN.
Bailey reported from New Orleans and Brown from Atlanta. Ann E. Marimow and Tom Hamburger contributed to this report.
Lauren Graham Shares Rare Insight on Life After Peter Krause Breakup
Lauren Graham is letting time heal her broken heart.
The Gilmore Girls alum reflected on the end of her decadelong relationship with Peter Krause in 2021, sharing the mindset she’s used as she moves forward.
“I knew I was resilient because I just always have been,” Graham told People in an interview published Nov. 2. “You take your knocks and don’t complain. That’s how I was always raised.”
The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers star said that she refused to let the breakup ruin her, so she threw herself into writing her forthcoming book, Have I Told You This Already? Stories I Don’t Want to Forget to Remember.
“Somewhere in that is a year like this where I just was not going to let [the breakup] flatten me,” she said. “I was like, ‘Okay, well, look at all the good stuff I have, and look at all the good times,’ and ‘I’m going to write this book.’ Thank goodness I have these outlets and these stories to tell.”
Supreme Court clears way for Lindsey Graham to testify in Georgia election probe
Graham had claimed that his actions were legitimate legislative activity protected by the Constitution’s “speech or debate clause” and that he was protected from disclosing them to a grand jury.
But Tuesday’s unsigned order said lower courts already had protected him from questioning that related to his official duties.
“The lower courts assumed that the informal investigative fact-finding that Senator Graham assertedly engaged in constitutes legislative activity protected by the Speech or Debate Clause … and they held that Senator Graham may not be questioned about such activities,” the order said.
“The lower courts also made clear that Senator Graham may return to the District Court should disputes arise regarding the application of the Speech or Debate Clause immunity to specific questions. Accordingly, a stay or injunction is not necessary to safeguard the Senator’s Speech or Debate Clause immunity.”
The action dissolved a temporary stay that had been granted by Justice Clarence Thomas while the full court considered the issue.
The Fulton County special grand jury investigating alleged 2020 presidential election interference by Trump and his allies has called for the senator to testify by Nov. 17. Jurors already have heard testimony from several Trump lawyers, including Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman and Boris Epshteyn. A judge has also ruled that former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows must testify.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) wants to question Graham about calls he made to Georgia election officials soon after Trump lost the election to Joe Biden. Prosecutors say Graham has “unique knowledge” about the Trump campaign and the “multistate, coordinated efforts to influence the results” of the election in Georgia and elsewhere.
The senator’s lawyers have said that they have been informed that Graham is a witness in — and not a target of — the probe. Graham’s lawyer Donald F. McGahn told the Supreme Court that Graham is immunized by the Constitution and that without a stay, “Sen. Graham will suffer the precise injury he is appealing to prevent: being questioned in state court about his legislative activity and official acts.”
Last month, a district court judge said prosecutors could not question Graham about portions of his calls that were legislative fact-finding. But the judge said Willis’s team could explore coordination with the Trump campaign in its post-election efforts in Georgia, public statements regarding the 2020 election and any efforts to “cajole” or “exhort” Georgia election officials.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit agreed that those actions “could not qualify as legislative activities under any understanding of Supreme Court precedent.” Two of the judges were nominated by Trump.
Willis had warned the Supreme Court that if Graham is allowed to avoid testimony entirely, the grand jury “will be foreclosed indefinitely from pursuing unique information, analyzing any resulting evidence, or using the Senator’s testimony to explore additional routes of valid inquiry.” It is scheduled to conclude its work by April.
Tom Hamburger contributed to this report.
Lindsey Graham: Supreme Court blocks request to block Georgia grand jury subpoena
CNN
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The Supreme Court declined on Tuesday to block a subpoena for Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham to testify in front of an Atlanta grand jury investigating efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
There were no public dissents from the order.
The South Carolina senator had filed an emergency request asking the justices to halt the testimony – currently scheduled for November 17 – while legal challenges play out.
Graham will now have to appear for testimony, although a lower court order leaves room for him to object to certain questions as they come up if there is a dispute about whether the question is off limits.
In the unsigned order, the justices agreed with the lower courts – noting that Graham could not be asked to talk specifically about issues related to his legislative role. The court also noted that should disputes arise about particular questions the Senator’s lawyers can still object to questions on a case by case basis.
“Accordingly,” the Supreme Court said, “a stay or injunction is not necessary to safeguard the Senator’s speech or debate clause immunity.”
Graham argued that he should not have to abide by the subpoena because his testimony is foreclosed by the Constitution’s Speech or Debate clause, which shields lawmakers from certain criminal or civil proceedings connected to their legislative duties.
Critics feared that if Graham were to prevail, it would embolden other members of Congress to make similar claims in an attempt to shield themselves from testifying. The clause reads that “for any Speech or Debate in either house” members of Congress “shall not be questioned in any other place.”
This story has been updated with additional details.
U.S. Supreme Court’s Thomas temporarily blocks Graham election case testimony
Oct 24 (Reuters) – U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas on Monday temporarily blocked a judge’s order requiring Senator Lindsey Graham to testify to a grand jury in Georgia in a criminal investigation into whether then-President Donald Trump and his allies unlawfully tried to overturn 2020 election results in the state.
Thomas put the case on hold pending further action either from the justice or the full Supreme Court on a request by Graham, a Republican from South Carolina and Trump ally, to halt the order for testimony. Graham filed the emergency application to the Supreme Court on Friday after a federal appeals court denied his request to block the questioning.
Thomas acted in the case because he is designated by the court to handle emergency requests from a region that includes Georgia.
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Graham has argued that his position as a senator provides him immunity under the U.S. Constitution’s “speech or debate” clause from having to answer questions related to his actions as part of the legislative process.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has subpoenaed Graham to answer questions about phone calls he made to a senior Georgia election official in the weeks after the November 2020 election.
Atlanta-based U.S. District Judge Leigh Martin May last month narrowed the scope of questions that Graham must answer from the grand jury, ruling that he is protected from having to discuss “investigatory fact-finding” that he was engaged in during his calls to state election officials.
However, May said he may be questioned about alleged efforts to encourage officials to throw out ballots or alleged communication with the Trump campaign. May rejected Graham’s bid to avoid testifying altogether.
The Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday declined to block Graham’s testimony pending an appeal.
Graham is not a target in the investigation but his testimony could shed further light on coordination among Trump allies to reverse the election results.
The senator’s lawyers said in his application that the testimony would “undisputedly center on Senator Graham’s official acts – phone calls he made in the course of his official work, in the leadup to the critical vote under the Electoral Count Act.”
Trump continues to appear at rallies repeating his false claims that the 2020 election won by Democrat Joe Biden was stolen from him through widespread voting fraud.
The investigation was launched after Trump was recorded in a Jan. 2, 2021, phone call pressuring Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to overturn the state’s election results based on unfounded claims of voter fraud. During the phone call, Trump urged Raffensperger, a fellow Republican, to “find” enough votes to overturn his Georgia loss to Biden.
The transcript of the call quotes Trump telling Raffensperger: “I just want to find 11,780 votes,” which is the number Trump needed to win Georgia. Trump has denied wrongdoing in the phone call.
Legal experts have said Trump’s phone calls may have violated at least three state election laws: conspiracy to commit election fraud, criminal solicitation to commit election fraud and intentional interference with performance of election duties.
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Reporting by Andrew Chung in New York; Editing by Will Dunham
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Supreme Court puts hold on order that Graham testify before grand jury
A unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit last week turned down an attempt by Graham to block a subpoena from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D), in which the lawmaker claimed a sitting senator is shielded from testifying in such investigations.
A district court judge had said Graham must appear, but narrowed the range of questions that prosecutors can ask.
Without a stay of the lower courts’ rulings, Graham’s lawyer, Donald F. McGahn, told the Supreme Court, “Sen. Graham will suffer the precise injury he is appealing to prevent: being questioned in state court about his legislative activity and official acts.”
Thomas is the Supreme Court justice designated to hear emergency requests from the 11th Circuit. His one-sentence order said the lower court’s ruling “is hereby stayed pending further order of the undersigned or of the Court.” Such language usually indicates that the court does not want the action being challenged to occur before the court can act.
Willis said in a previous interview with The Washington Post that the grand jury will not be active until after the midterm elections on Nov. 7. A subpoena for Graham’s testimony orders him to appear on Nov. 17.
Jeff DeStantis, a spokesman for Willis, said “we will decline to comment” on the Thomas order, pending the filing of prosecutors’ response to the Supreme Court.
The Atlanta grand jury investigating alleged 2020 presidential election interference has already heard testimony from several Trump lawyers, including Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman and Boris Epshteyn. Willis also wants to question former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.
Graham would be asked to testify about calls he made to Georgia election officials soon after Trump lost the election to Joe Biden. Prosecutors say Graham has “unique knowledge” about the Trump campaign and the “multistate, coordinated efforts to influence the results” of the election in Georgia and elsewhere.
But Graham has said his actions were legitimate legislative activity protected by the Constitution’s “speech or debate clause.” The senator’s lawyers have said that they have been informed that Graham is a witness in — and not a target of — the investigation.
Last month, a district court judge said prosecutors could not question Graham about portions of the calls that were legislative fact-finding. But the judge said Willis’s team could explore coordination with the Trump campaign in its post-election efforts in Georgia, public statements regarding the 2020 election and any efforts to “cajole” or “exhort” Georgia election officials.
The status of key investigations involving Donald Trump
In its order Thursday, the 11th Circuit panel agreed with the lower court judge that those actions “could not qualify as legislative activities under any understanding of Supreme Court precedent.” Two of the three judges on the panel were nominated by Trump.
Graham may still assert his rights, the court noted, if there is a dispute about certain questions.
Tom Hamburger and Ann E. Marimow contributed to this report.
Graham asks Supreme Court to intervene after election ruling
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham on Friday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene after a lower court ordered him to testify before a special grand jury in Georgia investigating whether then-President Donald Trump and others illegally tried to influence the 2020 election in the state.
In a filing with the court, attorneys for Graham, a top ally of Trump’s, sought to halt his possible testimony while he continues to appeal the order to appear before the Fulton County special grand jury.
Graham’s office described the South Carolina Republican’s filing as an attempt “to defend the Constitution and the institutional interest of the Senate.” The lower court’s ruling, Graham’s office said, “would significantly impact the ability of senators to gather information in connection with doing their job.”
The legal move is the latest in Graham’s ongoing fight to prevent his testimony in a case that has ensnared allies and associates of the former president. Some have already made their appearances before the special grand jury, including former New York mayor and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani — who’s been told he could face criminal charges in the probe — attorneys John Eastman and Kenneth Chesebro, and former White House counsel Pat Cipollone.
Paperwork has been filed seeking testimony from others, including former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
Graham, a four-term senator who last won reelection in 2020, was first subpoenaed in July by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who opened her investigation shortly after a recording of a January 2021 phone call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger was made public. In that call, Trump suggested Raffensperger could “find” the votes needed to overturn his narrow loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
Willis wants to question Graham about two phone calls he made to Raffensperger and his staff in the weeks after the election.
During those calls, Graham asked about “reexamining certain absentee ballots cast in Georgia in order to explore the possibility of a more favorable outcome for former President Donald Trump,” Willis wrote in a petition seeking to compel his testimony.
Graham also “made reference to allegations of widespread voter fraud in the November 2020 election in Georgia, consistent with public statements made by known affiliates of the Trump Campaign,” she wrote. She said in a hearing last month that Graham may be able to provide insight into the extent of any coordinated efforts to influence the results.
Raffensperger said he took Graham’s question about absentee ballots as a suggestion to toss out legally cast votes. Graham has dismissed that interpretation as “ridiculous.” Graham has also argued that the call was protected because he was asking questions to inform his decisions on voting to certify the 2020 election and future legislation.
Graham challenged his subpoena in federal court, but a judge refused to toss it out. Graham then appealed to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and a three-judge panel ruled Thursday in favor of Willis. Graham can appeal to the full court.
Graham’s lawyers argued that the Constitution’s speech or debate clause, which protects members of Congress from having to answer questions about legislative activity, shields him from having to testify.
Graham is represented by former White House counsel Don McGahn, who was involved in a lengthy court fight over a congressional subpoena for his own testimony related to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election. After years of back-and-forth, the two sides reached an agreement and McGahn answered investigators’ questions in a private session.
Graham’s filing Friday was directed to Justice Clarence Thomas, who handles emergency appeals from Georgia and several other Southern states. Thomas can act on his own or refer the matter to the full court.
Trump’s lawyers recently submitted a Supreme Court application to Thomas asking the Supreme Court to step into a legal fight over the classified documents seized during an FBI search of Trump’s Florida estate.
Thomas has previously come under scrutiny for his vote in a different Trump documents case, in which he was the only member of the court to vote against allowing the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot to obtain Trump records held by the National Archives and Records Administration.
Thomas’ wife, Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, is a conservative activist and staunch Trump supporter who attended the Jan. 6 “Stop the Steal” rally on the Ellipse and wrote to Meadows in the weeks following the election encouraging him to work to overturn Biden’s victory and keep Trump in office.
She also contacted lawmakers in Arizona and Wisconsin in the weeks after the election, though no evidence has emerged that she contacted Georgia officials. Thomas was recently interviewed by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection, and she stood by the false claim that the 2020 election was fraudulent, despite the fact that numerous federal and local officials, a long list of courts, top former campaign staffers and even Trump’s own attorney general have all said there is no evidence of mass fraud.
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Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP
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Mark Sherman in Washington contributed to this report.