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Graham says he’ll sue DOJ for $500K over phone records

Graham says he’ll sue DOJ for 0K over phone records

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Thursday that he will sue the Department of Justice (DOJ) for $500,000 over investigators who obtained phone records during special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into President Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.

The Senate’s proposal to reopen the government included a provision allowing senators to sue for $500,000 if their data was searched or obtained without notifying them. The measure, retroactive to 2022, became law when President Trump signed the funding bill Wednesday night to end the 43-day shutdown.

“This bothers me deeply, and I will file lawsuits and create opportunities for others to file lawsuits that are not in the Senate,” Graham told reporters in South Carolina. Postal and Courier.

Hill has reached out to the Department of Justice for comment.

While in the House of Representatives, Graham voted for the Patriot Act of 2001. expanding The federal government’s civilian surveillance capabilities. HE also argued The National Security Agency collected the phone records of millions of Americans in 2013.

One unclassified documentThe Sept. 27, 2023, document, released last month by the Senate Judiciary Committee, says an FBI special agent, whose name has been redacted, conducted a “preliminary charge analysis” on the phone records of Graham and Republican Sens. Bill Hagerty (Tenn.), Josh Hawley (Mo.), Dan Sullivan (Alaska), Tommy Tuberville (Ala.), Ron Johnson (Wis.), Cynthia Lummis. (Wyo.) and Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.). Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) X said on his social platform He was also the “target” of the investigation last month.

The agency also analyzed the records of Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.), who was unable to sue because the provision applied only to senators.

The committee said the recordings date from Jan. 4 to Jan. 7, 2021, before, during and after the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. newsletter. The data obtained includes who the MPs talked to, the duration of the conversations and their general locations, but the content of the conversations is not included.

Every Republican in the upper chamber except Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) joined eight Democrats in passing the funding measure.

But House lawmakers on both sides of the aisle criticized the provision’s inclusion.

Rep. Jamie Raskin (Md.), the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, on Tuesday called the provision “one of the most blatantly corrupt provisions of political expediency and plunder of public resources ever proposed in Congress.”

Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.) is the only Republican in the House to vote against the funding bill. said in x On Wednesday, he “could not in good conscience support a resolution that creates a self-indulgent legal provision for some senators to use taxpayer dollars to enrich themselves by suing the Department of Justice.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) He said on X on Wednesday It was stated that the lower house will vote next week on a standalone bill that would repeal the lawsuit measure.

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