'Graham's revenge': One GOP senator's vendetta could catapult government into shutdown

As Congress scrambles to pass a funding bill by Friday night to avert a government shutdown, a “Lindsey-Graham-sized snag” has emerged that could upend the effort, Politico reported Friday.

Last year’s government shutdown – the single-longest in U.S. history – ended after lawmakers agreed to a temporary spending measure that would fund the government through Jan. 30. As that deadline fast approached, a compromise endorsed by President Doanld Trump appeared ready to sail through the Senate.

It was Thursday night, Politico reported, that “Graham made his move.”

“He refused to go along with the plan over a House-backed provision that would repeal a law allowing senators to receive cash payouts if they had phone records seized by former special counsel Jack Smith – the South Carolina Republican included,” Politico reported.

Smith in 2022 was tasked with investigating Trump for both his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and his mishandling of classified documents. As part of those investigations, Smith had obtained phone records of nine GOP lawmakers, including Graham.

The spending bill Graham tanked included a provision allowing those GOP lawmakers to sue over the seizure of their phone records, a measure Graham has said he plans to use to seek more than $1 million in damages.

“If you think I’m going to settle this thing for a million dollars? No,” Graham said last November when asked if he planned to use the provision and sue over the seizure of his phone records. “I want to make it so painful, no one ever does this again.”

Senate Leader John Thune (R-SD) told Politico that despite Graham’s last-minute action, he was hopeful that after a night’s rest, Graham might be willing to reconsider.

“Hopefully by sometime tomorrow we’ll be in a better spot,” Thune said after leaving the Capitol Thursday night, Politico reported. “Tomorrow’s another day, and hopefully people will be in a spirit to try and get this done.”