Jennifer Rubin: “[Senator Lindsey] Graham denied to The Post that he encouraged [Georgia Secretary of State Brad] Raffensperger to discard ballots, saying he was only investigating signature-matching rules. That raises the question why he would need to know this information and decide directly to contact Raffensperger, who is under death threats and has been subject to baseless accusations of misconduct by fellow Republicans. Federal and/or state law enforcement should get to the bottom of this, requiring both parties to the conversation, and any witnesses, to preserve evidence. Stephen I. Vladeck, an election law guru and University of Texas law professor, tells me, ‘At least as relayed in the Post story, Sen. Graham appears to have been attempting to convince Secretary Raffensperger to alter the valid results of Georgia’s election — in a manner that may run afoul of numerous provisions of Georgia election law.’ He adds, ‘At the very least, it’s a serious matter that might warrant further investigation — and that is grossly unbecoming of any United States senator, let alone the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.'”

“Depending on the facts — and we do not definitively know what occurred — any number of laws might be implicated. Federal law (18 U.S.C. Section 242) provides: ‘Whoever, under color of any law, statute, ordinance, regulation, or custom, willfully subjects any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.’ In addition, 18 U.S.C. 1038(c) states that it is a crime to conspire to violate voting rights.”