A top Republican leader in Arizona who took part in a doomed scheme to create fake slates of pro-Trump electors in states carried by Joe Biden in the 2020 election has been issued a grand jury subpoena, a source familiar with the matter has said. Kelli Ward, a former state senator and current chair of the Arizona GOP, and her husband have both been compelled to aid the Justice Department’s investigation, both Politico and The New York Times reported. The couple are two of at least nine people subpoenaed in four states over the last 48 hours for their fake-elector work, the Times added. The Wards’ attorney, Alexander Kolodin, decried the investigation, telling the Times it was “based on allegations that our clients engaged in core First Amendment activity—petitioning Congress about grievances.” Prior to the news of the subpoena, Ward had spent the week tweeting manically about the public testimony of Arizona House speaker Rusty Bowers before the Jan. 6 House panel, calling him “Rusty Bowels” and endorsing his opponent for the upcoming state Republican primary—David Farnsworth, another alternate pro-Trump elector, according to TheArizona Republic.
