High court rules against Arizona Republican leader in records fight

The Supreme Court has cleared the way for the committee investigating the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol in Washington DC to get phone records belonging to the leader of the Arizona Republican Party.

The high court on Monday rejected 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 Ms Ward’s appeal was at the Supreme Court.

Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Samuel Alito said they would have sided with Ms Ward.

Ms 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.

A federal appeals court panel previously ruled 2-1 against Ms Ward and said the committee should get records of calls she made and received from just before the November 2020 election to January 31, 2021.

That includes a period when Ms Ward was pushing for Mr Trump’s election defeat to be overturned and Congress was set to certify the results in favour of Democrat Joe Biden.