Jan. 6 Committee Subpoenas Arizona GOP Chair And Her Husband’s Phone Records

PHOENIX, ARIZONA - JULY 24: Arizona Chairwoman Kelli Ward speaks during the Rally To Protect Our Elections conference on July 24, 2021 in Phoenix, Arizona. The Phoenix-based political organization Turning Point Actio... PHOENIX, ARIZONA - JULY 24: Arizona Chairwoman Kelli Ward speaks during the Rally To Protect Our Elections conference on July 24, 2021 in Phoenix, Arizona. The Phoenix-based political organization Turning Point Action hosted former President Donald Trump alongside GOP Arizona candidates who have begun candidacy for government elected roles. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images) MORE LESS
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The Jan. 6 committee subpoenaed the phone records of Arizona GOP chair Kelli Ward and her husband, Michael Ward, both of whom falsely claimed in documents that they were among the battleground state’s presidential electors in 2020.

On Tuesday, the Wards sued the committee in federal court in Arizona in an effort to block their phone provider, T-Mobile, from sharing records with the panel.

According to Politico, the Wards’ lawsuit has been assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Susan Brnovich, the wife of Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich — an ally of former President Donald Trump who is running for Senate.

The Wards’ complaint indicates that the committee subpoenaed T-Mobile last month for the couple’s phone records, as well as records from their company, Mole Medical Services P.C. T-Mobile said it would turn over the Wards’ records by Feb. 4, barring the Wards filing suit.

The committee seeks the Wards’ phone records from Nov. 1, 2020, through Jan. 31, 2021.

A source familiar with the planning of the lawsuit told Politico that a lawyer for the Wards indicated that the Arizona state GOP was likely to foot legal fees for the litigants.

In their complaint, the Wards argue that the subpoenas violate patient-physician privilege — both of them are osteopathic doctors who use their phones to speak with patients. Additionally, they argued that the subpoena violates their First and Fourth Amendment rights.

“Disclosing the phone records and metadata from the Phone Number would provide the [personal health information] of an unknown but quantifiable number of individuals seeking medical treatment from the Plaintiffs to the Committee and potentially to the public at large,” the Wards’ attorneys wrote in the complaint.

Ward was among some of the top GOP officials in the country who helped push former President Trump’s bogus claims of election fraud and sought to influence the ballot-counting process.

“We need you to stop the counting,” Ward wrote to Maricopa County Supervisor Clint Hickman (R) just a few days after Election Day, in one of several attempts to influence Hickman and several other members of the county’s Republican-dominated Board of Supervisors, according to the Arizona Republic in July.

The Republic also reported on Ward’s efforts to connect several commissioners to Sidney Powell, the pro-Trump lawyer who spread conspiracy theories about the 2020 vote and who is being sued by Doming Voting Systems.

Additionally, Ward gleefully touted in December 2020 that Trump called her for an “update” on her party’s efforts to challenge the state’s election results. The presidential call came a day after Arizona’s Supreme Court swatted down her challenge to void then-President-elect Joe Biden’s win.

The Wards were designated to be pro-Trump electors if the former president had won Arizona. They joined a lawsuit against then-Vice President Mike Pence in late December 2020 in an attempt to pressure him to not certify Biden’s electoral victory on Jan. 6, 2021.

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Notable Replies

  1. She seems nice.

  2. The Wards’ lawsuit has been assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Susan Brnovich, the wife of Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, an ally of former President Donald Trump who is running for Senate, according to Politico.

    So, that’s grounds for a recusal in most galaxies, right?

  3. “U.S. District Court Judge Susan Brnovich, the wife of Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, an ally of former President Donald Trump who is running for Senate”

    I’ll believe she was assigned the case coincidentally when the sun rises in the west and sets in the east and when the seas go dry and mountains blow in the wind. These fuckers are dirtier than dirt. It is known.

    And yep…fat blond-dyed white Karen-monster who wasn’t really qualified to be appointed to the federal bench…and she’ll prove not to have the ethics for it either.

  4. Silly rabbit. Recusals are for Democrats.

  5. Also, I’ll just leave this here…

    Yes, Snell & Wilmer is a big Republican power outfit…and it filed Trump’s lawsuit in Maricopa County to challenge the election before mysteriously withdrawing the next day…

    https://today.westlaw.com/Document/Ief147bd0247611eb8dfbdfeb7526f5c7/View/FullText.html?transitionType=Default&contextData=(sc.Default)&firstPage=true

    “Snell & Wilmer, a Phoenix-based firm with about 440 lawyers spread across the western United States and Washington, D.C., was working on the Arizona case alongside Phoenix political law firm Statecraft. That firm, which declined to comment, is still representing the Republican challengers.”

    “Snell & Wilmer, which has an election law practice, is separately serving as co-counsel in the Arizona Republican Party’s long-running defense of a state law that prohibits absentee ballot collection by third parties and the counting of ballots cast at the wrong polling precinct.”

    “Snell & Wilmer received more than $770,000 from the RNC, the National Republican Congressional Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee for legal services and legal consulting between January 2019 and September 2020, according to Federal Elections Commission records.”

    Yes, both Brnoviches will be proven corrupt and willing to do anything for GQP white Christian power.

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