Judge Rules Jan. 6 Committee Can Subpoena Arizona GOP Chair’s Phone Records

The January 6 select committee is investigating the role former President Donald Trump and his allies had in causing or provoking the attack on the Capitol. It has subpoenaed more than 100 witnesses in its investigation.

A federal judge dismissed Arizona GOP Chair Kelli Ward’s lawsuit to block a subpoena issued by the January 6 select committee to access her phone records.

In the 18-page ruling, issued on Thursday night, Judge Diane Humetewa said the committee has a legitimate legislative reason to investigate Ward’s call history between November 1, 2020, and January 31, 2021.

“That three-month period is plainly relevant to its investigation into the causes of the January 6th attack,” Humetewa wrote in her ruling. “The Court therefore has little doubt concluding these records may aid the Select Committee’s valid legislative purpose.”

During that time, Ward participated in organizing pro-Donald Trump electors who attempted to replace the legitimate electors who were set to vote for Joe Biden after he won the election in the state.

Ward also helped spread the claim that the election was fraudulent, and she and her husband Michael Ward joined a lawsuit against Mike Pence while Trump was pressuring the then-vice president to help him overturn the election.

Ward filed a notice on Friday indicating that she will appeal the ruling.

In her lawsuit, Ward argued that the committee’s subpoena was improperly issued and lacked legislative purpose. She also called it a law enforcement investigation masquerading as a legislative investigation and claimed it was aimed at punishing Trump supporters for exercising their First Amendment rights. The lawsuit also noted that the subpoena did not include the required 13 members of the committee.

However, Humetewa argued in her ruling that the panel had been ratified by votes from the entire House of Representatives, who also approved previous efforts to hold defiant witnesses in contempt of Congress. She also said that she did not want to second-guess the House’s decision to allow the committee to continue without its full complement of members.

“Plaintiffs bear the burden of establishing that jurisdiction over the Congressional Defendants exists and have failed to do so here,” she wrote.

The January 6 select committee is expected to reveal its findings in December.