The ruling upheld a September decision by a federal judge who also rejected Kelli Ward’s First Amendment arguments.
The ruling issued over the weekend by a divided three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected claims by state party Chair Kelli Ward that 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.
“The investigation, after all, is not about Ward’s politics; it is about her involvement in the events leading up to the January 6 attack, and it seeks to uncover those with whom she communicated in connection with those events,” they wrote. One of Ward’s attorneys, Alexander Kolodin, declined to comment Monday on the ruling and on whether an appeal was planned.