Arizona GOP chair repeatedly invoked Fifth Amendment in Jan. 6 deposition: report

The Arizona Republican Party chair pleaded the Fifth Amendment to avoid answering questions from the Jan. 6 committee.

Kelli Ward, the top-ranking GOP official in the key swing state, invoked her constitutional right against self-incrimination during an interview with the House select committee, which she is trying to block from obtaining her phone records from the period between the 2020 election and Joe Biden's inauguration, reported Politico.

“Dr. Ward was deposed by the select committee, and she declined to answer on every substantive question and asserted her rights under the Fifth Amendment,” said Eric Columbus, an attorney for the select committee.

It's not clear when she sat for her deposition, but Columbus revealed her assertions in a hearing before Arizona-based U.S. District Court Judge Diane Humetewa related to her lawsuit seeking to block T-Mobile from turning over her phone records.

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Humetewa recently rejected Ward's effort, but she has asked the judge for a delay while she seeks a review of her case by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Ward has complained that, as a medical doctor, her phone records could identify patients she's treating and possibly harm Republican activists she had been contacting, but Columbus argued that the select committee was only interested in the logs of incoming and outgoing calls to determine when relevant contacts took place.

“There is nothing unique about Dr. Ward here,” Columbus said, but noting that it was an "investigation of a very political event, an attempt to overthrow and subvert an election.”

Ward was among 10 pro-Trump electors from Arizona and also joined a December 2020 lawsuit pressuring vice president Mike Pence to seat them instead of Biden electors.