South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham is pitching fellow Republicans on expanding who can sue over the now-defunct Jack Smith investigation — and Graham claims he has a key supporter in Speaker Mike Johnson.

Graham said in a statement to Blue Light News that he had spoken with Johnson about his push to allow lawsuits from people he claims were improperly targeted by the former special counsel during his probe of the 2020 election. Johnson, he said, is amenable to expanding who can sue beyond just the handful of GOP senators who had their phone records seized.

“I had a very good conversation with Speaker Johnson who does, in my view, want to open the courthouse doors to people wronged and hold Jack Smith accountable,” Graham said. “He wants to expand the ability to sue to more people, not less, consistent with Congressional ethics rules. I share that view.”

A spokesperson for Johnson did not respond to a request for comment.

The interchamber communication is the latest turn in a monthslong saga over letting Graham and other senators sue the Justice Department for potentially millions of dollars over Smith’s decision to subpoena their phone records.

The provision was tucked into a spending bill enacted in November, prompting an uproar from Democrats and House Republicans who saw it as a case of secret self-dealing. The House in turn moved last month to insert its own provision in a separate spending bill undoing the effort — prompting the South Carolina Republican to lash out at the speaker during a floor speech last week.

Graham briefly held up the spending bill but won a commitment from Senate Majority Leader John Thune for a separate vote on an expanded provision that would allow not only senators to sue, but also other members of Congress, groups and individuals.

“We’re going to give everyone in the South Carolina delegation the chance to open the courthouse doors to conservatives who were targeted by Jack Smith and the Biden DOJ,” Graham said Thursday.

At the same time, Graham has sought to emphasize that his legislation is not aimed at self-enrichment, claiming to reporters last week that the Senate Ethics Committee confirmed he could not personally profit.

The Ethics Committee guidance, which was reviewed by Blue Light News, holds that senators are not entitled to receive monetary compensation under the original provision enacted in November but can seek a declaratory judgment and/or injunctive relief. Graham’s forthcoming legislation, his office said, will follow the committee guidelines.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Thursday left open the possibility the administration could sue President Donald Trump’s pick for Federal Reserve chair, Kevin Warsh, if he doesn’t deliver on the president’s desired interest rate cuts.

Trump said Saturday he would consider suing Warsh if he did not cut interest rates. The Fed is an independent agency.

When asked by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) during a Senate Banking Committee hearing about the possibility of a lawsuit, Bessent refused to answer.

“That is up to the president,” he said, before adding: “Warsh is highly qualified.”

The Trump administration, including Bessent, has been sharply critical of the Fed and its current Chair Jerome Powell for its interest rate policy and its handling of a building renovation. The Department of Justice is investigating Powell in relation to the renovation, moves Powell has called “pretexts.”

Bessent furthered that criticism Thursday, saying Treasury cannot print “magic money” to solve some of the nation’s economic issues — referring to the Fed’s ability to expand the amount of money in circulation, a power both Bessent and Warsh say has been overused.

The comments echo remarks Bessent made in a fiery House hearing Wednesday. “The Fed has lost accountability,” he said. “It lost the trust of the American people when it allowed the greatest inflation in 49 years.”

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who has said he will not vote for Warsh until the Powell probe is resolved, said senators had already heard from Powell about the cost overruns.

“[Powell] was testifying and we didn’t see a crime,” he said.

There were multiple moments of tension between the Treasury secretary and Democratic senators Thursday, similar to Wednesday’s at-times rocky House meeting.

Bessent took shots at Warren, with whom he has feuded publicly in the past. When she asked why he had previously written that tariffs would be inflationary — an economic effect he and the administration argue is not at play today — he answered that he is not always right.

“A year before [writing that letter to investors], I also wrote that I thought Senator Warren would be the Democratic presidential nominee. So my predictions have been bad,” he said.

In one line of questioning from multiple senators, Bessent was asked how he, as acting director of the Internal Revenue Service, would handle the president’s $10 billion dollar lawsuit against the tax agency, filed last week.

“It’s a Justice department matter,” he said. “I will follow the law.” He acknowledged that if the president were to be successful, the funds would come out of the Treasury General Account, the checking account of the government that he oversees.

A sizable number of Senate Democrats haven’t ruled out another short-term funding punt for the Department of Homeland Security.

Democratic leaders Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer sent a formal wishlist of DHS policy changes Wednesday to GOP leaders Mike Johnson and John Thune. But Republicans have little interest in their ideas, with leaders hinting at the need for another continuing resolution to buy more time for talks.

— Dodging the question: “We need to keep as many options on the table as possible,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) told reporters when asked whether she would rule out a CR.

Shaheen was one of the eight Senate Democrats who voted to help Republicans end the record government shutdown last fall. Some other senators in that group also didn’t give direct answers Wednesday on whether they’d support a second DHS stopgap — a stark contrast to many fellow Democrats, who immediately rejected the idea.

Most of the eight Democrats instead noted there’s more than a week before the funding cliff arrives.

“As soon as you say [another CR], you can bet it’ll take another two, three weeks to reach a conclusion,” Sen. Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat, told Calen. “We can fix this problem. We’ve got enough time to do it by the 13th of this month.”

“We’re going to give [Republicans] a proposal and they should say yes to it,” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) told Blue Light News. Asked if he’d help move another funding patch if Republicans object to their pitches, Kaine said, “I won’t say past that.”

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) also did not respond directly to questions about whether she’d support another DHS CR.

— The brewing CR length fight: Another stopgap to buy time for more talks is one thing; a full-year CR like what Thune is floating is another.

Democrats want to force the White House and Republicans into a deal in the next few days. They are opposed to a year-long measure that would keep the status quo at DHS and allow the administration more leeway in how it uses money for ICE and Customs and Border Protection.

Some Democrats who plan to attend Thursday morning’s National Prayer Breakfast are hoping to talk directly with Trump about his immigration agenda and the recent killings of two U.S. citizens in Minnesota at the hands of federal agents.

Thune is open to another two-week measure, but said “it may be the best way to deal with this particular appropriations bill is do a year-long CR, if that’s what it takes.” Keep an eye on whether the majority leader starts laying the procedural groundwork for a CR before the Senate adjourns Thursday.

While Johnson is “optimistic” there will be a DHS deal, he told Blue Light News he was “neither ruling it in or out” when it comes to a short-term CR.

“I don’t make any projections on that,” Johnson added about the possibility of a full-year CR for DHS.

What else we’re watching:   

— The likely next member of the House: New Jersey voters Thursday will pick Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s likely successor in Congress in the first congressional Democratic primary election of the 2026 midterms.

Eleven Democrats are vying in a special election primary to fill the reliably-blue 11th District seat. Among the front-runners is former Rep. Tom Malinowski, who represented the 7th District for two terms before he lost the 2022 race to Republican Rep. Tom Kean.

Mia McCarthy, Meredith Lee Hill and Timothy Cama contributed to this report.