The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot can have access to Rep. Kelli Ward and her husband’s phone records, a federal court ruled Saturday.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals voted 2-1 to deny the Arizona Republican’s request to block her phone carrier, T-Mobile, from complying with a subpoena issued by the House committee, POLITICO reported.
“The investigation, after all, is not about Ward’s politics; it is about her involvement in the events leading up to the January 6 attack, and it seeks to uncover those with whom she communicated in connection with those events,” the majority judges wrote in their opinion.
“That some of the people with whom Ward communicated may be members of a political party does not establish that the subpoena is likely to reveal ‘sensitive information about [the party’s] members and supporters.’”
The lone judge who dissented said she would have granted Ward’s request to block the subpoena because the committee has not provided evidence Ward’s contacts had any involvement in the siege.
The select committee is seeking the phone records because the Wards are among the Republican leaders to publicly reject Joe Biden’s 2020 win and tried to overturn the election.
Ward and her husband, Michael Ward, have been fighting the subpoena since it was first issued in January, arguing it violates their First Amendment rights by intruding on her activities as a chairperson of the Arizona Republican Party.
Last month, an Arizona-based federal judge tossed Ward’s request for an injunction to block the subpoena, POLITICO said. A 9th Circuit panel temporarily halted the subpoena on Tuesday, but the Saturday decision listed the stay.
Last week, the select committee issued a subpoena to former President Trump over claims he “personally orchestrated and oversaw a multi-part effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election.”
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