High court rules against Arizona GOP leader in records fight

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court has cleared the way for the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol to get phone records belonging to the leader of the Arizona Republican Party.

The high court on Monday rejected GOP state chair

Kelli Ward’s request to halt the turnover of records while a lawsuit proceeds. The court lifted a temporary order that had been put in place by Justice Elena Kagan that had paused anything from happening while Ward’s emergency request was at the Supreme Court.

Ward has said her First Amendment rights would be chilled if investigators were able to learn whom she spoke with while trying to challenge former President Donald Trump’s 2020 election defeat. Ward attorney Alexander Kolodin said he had not yet seen the order and had no immediate comment.

As is common in situations involving emergency requests to the high court, the justices did not explain their reasoning in their three-sentence order. Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Samuel Alito said they would have sided with Ward but also did not elaborate.

Thomas’ wife Virginia “Ginni” Thomas is one of the people who was interviewed by the Jan. 6 committee and has stood by the false claim that the 2020 election was fraudulent. She had urged Republican lawmakers in Arizona after the election to choose their own slate of electors.

A federal appeals court panel previously ruled 2-1 against Ward and said the committee should get records of calls she made and received from just before the November 2020 election to Jan. 31, 2021. That includes a period when Ward was pushing for Trump’s election defeat to be overturned and Congress was set to certify the results in favor of Democrat Joe Biden.