U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham speaks at a press convention on the U.S. Capitol on August 05, 2022 in Washington, DC.
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U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham on Saturday defended suggesting there can be “riots in the streets” if former President Donald Trump was prosecuted for mishandling labeled data, saying he condemned the violence seen throughout the Capitol riot final yr.
“What I tried to do was state the obvious,” Graham, a South Carolina Republican and shut ally of Trump, instructed CNBC’s Steve Sedgwick on the Ambrosetti Forum in Italy.
“Here’s what I said, The raid on [former] President Trump’s home, the likely nominee for 2024, better bear some fruit here,” he added. “If it’s just about mishandling classified information, we’ve had a standard set when it came to Hillary Clinton.”
“Our country, the people on our side, believe that when it comes to the justice system, there are no rules regarding Trump, [it’s a case of] ‘get him, it doesn’t matter how you get him,’ so I said that if it’s similar to what happened to Clinton and he gets prosecuted, it’ll be one of the most disruptive events in America,” Graham mentioned.
Trump and his allies have argued that the FBI, which is investigating Trump for potential violations of legal guidelines associated to espionage and obstruction of justice, is treating him in another way than it handled Hillary Clinton, who was the topic of an FBI investigation into her use of a non-public electronic mail server whereas secretary of state, however wasn’t prosecuted. Trump’s critics argue that the 2 circumstances aren’t comparable.
Graham mentioned he rejected the violence seen on the Jan.6 Capitol riot and mentioned “all those people who defiled the Capitol should go to jail” however mentioned that any perceived unfairness towards Trump would have penalties.
“I don’t want to pardon the January 6th people because that seems to reinforce the narrative that this is OK. I said something I really believe — if he does what she did with classified information and he gets prosecuted and she didn’t it would create a problem.”
Graham mentioned final week that there can be “riots in the streets” if Trump was prosecuted for mishandling labeled data.
“I’ll say this, if there’s a prosecution of Donald Trump for mishandling classified information, after the Clinton debacle … there’ll be riots in the streets,” Graham instructed Fox News’ Trey Gowdy, a former Republican congressman.
Trump ‘was a consequential president’
Trump is at present underneath investigation and dangers being indicted over his therapy of labeled White House information that he took to his residence in Mar-a-Lago, Florida.
Last week, the discharge of a closely redacted affidavit confirmed how issues about criminality and obstruction of justice led to an FBI search at Trump’s resort in July.
Graham conceded that he believed in “handling classified information responsibly” however once more insisted that “mishandling classified information is really bad but we can’t have a system where one person gets prosecuted and the other doesn’t.”
Asked whether or not Trump is the perfect particular person to characterize the Republican Party in 2024, Graham mentioned “I think he could be.”
“Whether you like Trump or not he was a consequential president … I think a strong American president, unpredictable, is a good thing as long as you keep it within the boundaries. His problem is personal, his policies have stood the test of time but has he worn the American people out in terms of his personality? Time will tell. But I’ll say this, after the Biden presidency, if there’s a policy debate in 2024, I like his chances. If it’s a personality contest, he’ll be in trouble.”
Graham mentioned he talks to Trump “all the time” and that the previous president nonetheless thinks that he was “cheated.” Graham mentioned he voted to certify the 2020 election and that Biden is the official president.
Trump “genuinely believes that the system was rigged against him and I said ‘Mr. President, I’m not trying to tell you to change your beliefs. I’m trying to tell you that you have no chance of winning in 2020 but you have a pretty good chance of winning in 2024 if you want to,'” Graham mentioned, noting that he instructed Trump that if he does make a comeback “it will be one of the greatest political comebacks in American history.”
Speech and debate clause
A federal choose on Thursday denied Graham’s newest effort to problem a subpoena for his testimony earlier than a particular grand jury in Georgia, which is investigating potential felony election interference by Trump and his allies in 2020.
However, the choose restricted the scope of the subpoena by ordering that Graham couldn’t be questioned about cellphone calls he made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and his employees within the weeks after the November 2020 election between Trump and President Joe Biden.
It follows continued bids by Graham to keep away from testifying on the grounds that his place as a lawmaker grants him immunity underneath the U.S. Constitution’s “speech or debate” clause.
Graham reiterated his place on Saturday, saying “I didn’t start this debate. You have a country prosecutor who has decided to investigate a national election and to call anybody and everybody connected with the role they played in the election. I’m a United States Senator, in our Constitution, we have a speech or debate immunity clause so that we can’t be hauled into courts all over the country every time we do something somebody doesn’t like.”
“I think the court is going to recognize that my activities as a United States Senator was covered by the speech and debate clause that that the county prosecutor’s desire to bring me down to Georgia oversteps the constitution.”
Source: www.cnbc.com”