Kelli Ward, Arizona GOP chair, refused to answer questions before Jan. 6 committee
Kelli Ward, the head of Arizona’s Republican Party, declined to answer questions during her subpoenaed testimony before the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, a government attorney said in court on Tuesday.
The revelation came as part of the attorney’s argument that the Select Committee needed to view a log of call activity from Ward’s cellphone in the months leading up to the Capitol riot.
An attorney for Ward said she testified before the committee and refused to answer questions to avoid self-incrimination sometime in the spring. Ward, who was not at the hearing on Tuesday, could not immediately be reached for comment.
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The committee sought a log of phone calls and text exchanges to Ward’s phone from Election Day on 2020 through January 2021. That span of time included when Ward was part of a group of Republicans who met and falsely asserted themselves as Arizona’s presidential electors.
The group of Republicans met at party headquarters and cast false Electoral College votes for former President Donald Trump, even though Joe Biden had won the state, according to the certified results.
The group sent the paperwork to Congress and the National Archives. Republicans in other states sent similar documents to Congress, part of a scheme that would have had the official counting of the Electoral College votes on Jan. 6, 2021, delayed or upended.
Trump supporters breached the U.S. Capitol during the count, sending lawmakers fleeing the chambers. The certification was delayed for hours.
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The committee had subpoenaed Ward’s cell phone provider, T-Mobile, for the information Ward then fought that subpoena in court.
U.S. District Judge Diane J. Humetewa ruled in September the committee had the right to get the logs. The hearing on Tuesday was over a motion filed by Ward asking that the phone records not be turned over until after Ward’s appeal of that ruling.
The judge on Tuesday did not issue a ruling at the end of the hearing. She said one would be forthcoming.
Reach the reporter at richard.ruelas@arizonarepublic.com
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Kelli Ward refused to answer questions before Jan. 6 committee