WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday declined to block the release of the Arizona Republican Party chairman Kelly Ward’s phone records To a House committee investigating the January 6 riots at the Capitol.
The justices rejected an emergency motion filed by Ward that would have had phone records related to his T-Mobile cell phone released to a House committee. Two conservative justices, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, indicated in the brief that they would have granted the application.
A spokesman for the group declined to comment.
Thomas faces investigation into his involvement in the 2020 election-related cases because his wife, Virginia “Ginny” Thomas has questioned the results of the presidential election And Testified January 6 Committee itself. Justice Thomas participated in the January 2022 ruling, in which the court rejected the earlier one President Donald Trump’s attempt to block disclosure of White House records to the panel.
Liberal Justice Elena Kagan last month Temporarily blocked While the judges were weighing what action to take, the Ward subpoena was not implemented.
Ward and her husband, Michael Ward, were among 14 of the 84 so-called alternate voters. It was subpoenaed by the committee on January 6 this yearIt cited their association with forged documents that helped then-President Donald Trump win their states in the 2020 election.
Lower CourtsIncluding 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals based in San FranciscoRejected Ward’s arguments to block the subpoena.
The couple, who are doctors, argued that releasing their records would violate medical privacy laws. The committee continues only Kelly Ward’s records. In the Supreme Court, Ward argued that the subpoena violated the right to freedom of association under the Constitution’s First Amendment.
“Dr. If Ward’s phone and text message records are revealed, congressional investigators are going to contact every person who had contact with Ward during and after the 2020 election. This is not speculation, this is a certainty,” the couple’s lawyers wrote in court documents.
The subpoena focuses on a T-Mobile cell phone account linked to the ward. The information it seeks includes all phone numbers, IP addresses or devices that have been connected to the phone since the 2020 presidential election.
Ward and fellow Republicans built a competitive electorate in Arizona and declared Trump the winner, even though election results showed Joe Biden with the most votes in the state. Those measures are covered below Review of Judiciary As well as the Jan. 6 Committee.
Under the normal process followed by Arizona government officials, certification of the state’s ballot by a panel of appointed electors is a formality after a winner is determined by popular vote. Trump and his allies pursued a far-fetched theory in 2020 that if states submitted contested election results to Congress, lawmakers gathered at the Capitol to certify the results on January 6, 2021, could have prevented Biden from becoming president.
In addition to other flaws in the plan, Vice President Mike Pence, who had a ceremonial role in the certification, refused to go along with it. The attack on the Capitol by pro-Trump mobs was intrinsically linked to efforts to overturn Biden’s victory.
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