Ariz. GOP Chair Makes Last-Ditch Try at Blocking T-Mobile Subpoena

Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward “has made no secret of her support for Donald Trump,” her concerns about the “integrity” of the 2020 election or her role in sending “an alternate slate of electors” to Washington, she told the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Monday in her emergency motion for an injunction, pending appeal, to block T-Mobile’s release of her phone records under subpoena from the House Jan. 6 Select Committee (see 2210170001). The “only reason” to subpoena Ward’s phone records “is to get at those with whom she associated and to question them about their communications” with the state GOP chair, she said in her reply (docket 22-16473) to the committee’s opposition.

Ward, a practicing physician, argues that releasing her phone data under subpoena would violate her First Amendment “associational” rights and breach doctor-patient confidentiality. “It is hard to imagine a greater chill on public participation in partisan politics than an inquiry from federal investigators brought about by partisan advocacy,” said her reply. “Relief is needed” by Wednesday, it said, which is when T-Mobile plans to release the records to the committee unless barred from doing so by a 9th Circuit injunction.

The metadata requested by the committee “is not limited to employees of a presidential campaign or the GOP,” but includes Ward’s patients and “rank-and-file volunteers for conservative candidates and causes,” said her reply. “Control of Congress changes regularly. The precedent set here will or will not set limits on the scope of future committees’ investigations of political opponents. It is an extremely important and difficult issue.”

Since Ward chairs the Arizona GOP, the subpoena “necessarily implicates the political associational interests of Arizona Republicans (and even non-affiliated voters and activists concerned about the election) in contact with her during the relevant time period,” said her reply. Ward “has standing to contend that the T-Mobile subpoena tramples on the political associational rights of Arizona Republicans,” it said.

The call detail and text message records the committee seeks “will reveal (without a protective order) patient identities and why they were being treated,” said Ward’s reply. “That is classic protected health information [PHI].” A patient phone number associated with a healthcare provider “is presumed to be PHI,” it said.

“It does no good to argue” that Ward’s phone “was also used for other purposes,” said the reply. “Patients should not have to choose between the implication they are part of a seditious conspiracy and admitting that they were receiving medical weight-loss treatment.” Yet, because all of Ward’s patients are being treated for medical weight loss, “this is the choice they will face if the Committee has its way,” it said.

Ward faces “irreparable harm” because her appeal “will become moot absent an injunction,” said the reply. Whether the committee has need of the subpoenaed materials “is not currently the issue,” it said. “The present question is whether it has an immediate need of such intensity as to warrant irrevocably depriving” Ward of her right to appeal, it said.