Judge says Jan. 6 committee can get Arizona GOP Chair Kelli Ward's phone records

WASHINGTON — A federal judge in Arizona ruled Thursday that the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol can see the phone records of Arizona Republican Party Chairwoman Kelli Ward and her husband.

U.S. District Court Judge Diane J. Humetewa rejected the Wards' arguments in a February lawsuit that the congressional panel should be prevented from getting the phone records of the couple, who are doctors, because it would violate medical privacy laws.

In January, the state GOP chair and her husband, Michael Ward, were among 14 of 84 so-called alternate electors subpoenaed by the committee because they had claimed in bogus documents that then-President Donald Trump had won the 2020 election in their states.

The judge wrote in her 18-page filing Thursday that the House committee's information request "relates to phone calls records from November 1, 2020, to January 31, 2021, from an account associated with a Republican nominee to serve as elector for former President Trump."