Arizona GOP chair sues to block Jan. 6 committee subpoena for phone records

Kelli Ward, the head of the Arizona Republican Party, is suing the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, seeking to block it from receiving her phone records. 

In a suit filed Tuesday evening in Arizona’s federal district court, the state GOP chair and her husband, Michael Ward, with whom Kelli Ward owns a medical practice, argued that the subpoena would violate their constitutional rights and their patients’ confidentiality. 

“Plaintiffs respectfully ask that this Court declare that the Subpoena is a violation of the Plaintiffs’ constitutional rights, an overbroad overreach of congressional power for improper purposes, and that this Court quash it, while enjoining Defendants from enforcing the Subpoena or producing any documents in compliance with its demands,” the lawsuit reads. 

The House Jan. 6 select committee had not previously announced the subpoena, which was issued to the Wards’ phone service provider, T-Mobile.

The select committee announced last week that it had subpoenaed 14 individuals associated with a scheme to submit a slate of fake electors who “certified” that former President Trump had won battleground states that in fact had gone to President Biden in the 2020 presidential election.

While neither of the Wards was among the group listed by the select committee last week, they were both among the fake electors who tried to pass off their certifications as legitimate Electoral College votes for Trump, an effort that they celebrated on social media.

The Wards’ lawsuit was initially assigned to U.S. District Judge Susan Brnovich, who is married to Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich (R), a Trump ally running for Senate. The judge quickly recused herself a day after the lawsuit was filed.