PHOENIX \u2014 Kari Lake, a Republican Senate candidate in Arizona who has amplified former president Donald Trump\u2019s false claims about rigged elections, has decided not to defend statements she made about a top election official in the state\u2019s largest county who sued her for defamation.<\/p>\n
Attorneys for Lake, her 2022 campaign for governor and an affiliated nonprofit group on Tuesday asked a judge to begin the process of determining damages as part of a lawsuit brought by Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer (R), in his personal capacity. Attorneys not affiliated with the case say a judge must agree to the request.<\/p>\n
Richer alleged in a lawsuit filed last year that Lake, her campaign and the group repeatedly and falsely accused him of causing Lake to lose the 2022 Arizona gubernatorial election, unleashing a barrage of threats against him and his family. Richer\u2019s complaint sought to hold Lake and her allies accountable for her claims that Richer had \u201csabotaged the election to prevent Republican candidates, including Lake, from winning.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lake requested the judge set what is known as a default judgment hearing, which would essentially bypass the legal process for her to defend her comments. She instead wants the court to hold a hearing to determine whether damages are owed to Richer and, if so, the amount.<\/p>\n
Richer has asked the court to award him damages, attorneys\u2019 fees and a public acknowledgment that the statements about him were untrue. He also wants Lake and her allies to remove all false information about him from their social media accounts and websites.<\/p>\n
Richer, 38, said in an interview that he and his family have suffered because of comments by Lake and her allies, who have millions of fans around the nation. In the past two months, he said federal officials have arrested two people for threatening him because of his role in the 2022 election.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was not a normal part of my life\u201d before the election, he said.<\/p>\n
The request came Tuesday as the case entered a discovery process, a behind-the-scenes phase where both sides exchange information \u2014 which can sometimes include emails, text messages and recordings \u2014 in preparation for trial.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter months of doubling down and defending their lies across Arizona, in the media, and on social media, when push came to shove, the Defendants decided to completely back down and concede that their lies were just that: lies,\u201d Richer said in a statement. \u201cBecause of their actions, my family and I have faced an endless barrage of threats \u2014 including calls for our execution \u2014 I have lost close personal relationships, and I have had my reputation irreparably damaged.\u201d<\/p>\n
Garrett Ventry, a senior adviser to Lake, responded: \u201cKari Lake maintains she has always been truthful.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a video posted on social media Tuesday, Lake echoed rhetoric employed by Trump and called the case against her a \u201cpolitical witch hunt.\u201d She likened the defamation case to the lawsuits Trump is facing, saying those pursuing legal action \u201cknow they can\u2019t beat either of us fair and square, so they hit us with lawsuits to keep us tied up and off the campaign trail\u201d and to \u201ctry to stop me and bleed me dry.\u201d<\/p>\n
The political elite will do anything to hold onto power and STOP outsiders like me\u2013 they\u2019ve resorted to filing a ludicrous defamation lawsuit to try to stop me and bleed me dry. <\/p>\n
Taking part in this lawfare just legitimizes it<\/p>\n
Instead, I will continue to focus on the issues\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/uE7udsWyKx<\/p>\n
\u2014 Kari Lake (@KariLake) March 26, 2024<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Lake sought to characterize her request to move to the damages phase as a way to try to undercut the premise of Richer\u2019s claims. Participating in the legal process, she said \u201cwould only serve to legitimize this perversion of our legal system.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lake said she is focused on her Senate race, where she is vying for her party\u2019s nomination for a seat now held by Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I).<\/p>\n
Jared Davidson, an attorney at Protect Democracy, which is representing Richer, said Lake\u2019s legal move demonstrates that \u201cshe has no defense \u2014 effectively admitting that she spread lies about Mr. Richer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Richer\u2019s complaint focuses on accusations made by Lake at campaign rallies, in podcasts and on social media that Richer intentionally caused printers at polling places to jam on Election Day. The glitches caused temporary disruptions in tabulating the votes, but an independent review has found the problems were not pervasive and did not prevent people from voting.<\/p>\n
Richer\u2019s complaint claims that during a \u201cSave Arizona\u201d rally in January 2023, Lake \u201cfalsely and with actual malice\u201d accused Richer of sabotaging the election by misprinting ballots. Lake added that Richer and Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates, also a Republican, \u201cintentionally printed the wrong image on the ballot on Election Day so that those ballots would intentionally be spit out of the tabulators.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, these guys are really, really terrible at running elections, but I found out they\u2019re really good at lying,\u201d Lake said at the rally.<\/p>\n
Vazquez reported from Washington.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
PHOENIX \u2014 Kari Lake, a Republican Senate candidate in Arizona who has amplified former president Donald Trump\u2019s false claims about rigged elections, has decided not to defend statements she made about a top election official in the state\u2019s largest county who sued her for defamation. Attorneys for Lake, her 2022 campaign for governor and an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2431,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}