9th Circuit Puts Hold on Subpoena for Ariz. GOP Chief’s Phone Records

T-Mobile is “temporarily enjoined” from releasing under subpoena to the House Jan. 6 Select Committee the phone records of Arizona GOP Chair Kelli Ward, “pending our resolution of the motion for injunction pending appeal,” said the 9th Circuit U.S. Appeals Court in an order late Tuesday (docket 22-16473). “By this order we express no opinion as to the merits of this pending motion for injunction,” said the three-judge panel of Barry Silverman, Sandra Ikuta and Eric Miller. T-Mobile said it told Ward it had planned to turn over the records Wednesday (see 2210180003). The committee said it needs Ward’s phone records for its investigation into her efforts to thwart the certification of the 2020 election. Ward, a practicing physician, argued that the subpoena violated her First Amendment associational rights and would breach doctor-patient confidentiality. U.S. District Judge Diane Humetewa in Phoenix twice denied Ward’s motion for an injunction to quash the subpoena on grounds she didn’t prove irreparable harm.