Lawyers for Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake decided not to fight a defamation case against her on Tuesday. They chose not to contest the claims that she defamed a state election worker after the 2022 election.
Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer (R) sued Lake last year in his personal capacity, claiming Lake defamed him after she refused to concede her 2022 Arizona gubernatorial defeat and alleged election fraud.
The lawsuit alleges that Lake consistently and systematically lied about Richer’s actions as recorder, causing him to receive harassment and multiple threats to his life. Richer also stated that Lake claimed without evidence that he stuffed ballot boxes with 300,000 invalid votes and used his role as recorder to make the ballot unclear for voters.
Richer said in a statement last year when the lawsuit was filed that he has been constantly harassed, intimidated, and threatened because of the false statements made by the defendants in this case about his work and the elections.
The court filing on Tuesday does not dispute Richer’s claims and asks for a fast hearing to determine damages.
Richer sees the filing as an acknowledgment of guilt.
He expressed on post on X, formerly Twitter, that he won't defend or can't defend and that he'll get his due, but the millions of people she lied to and the thousands of people who donated to continue the fight, as well as the people who went to jail because they believed Kari’s lies, won't get their due.
However, Lake dismissed the filing as a refusal to take part in what she called a “political witch hunt” and a “frivolous” lawsuit, refusing to admit responsibility.
She stated in a
video message that “Washington, D.C. operates on blackmail and bribes. Since they can’t blackmail or bribe me, they’ve resorted to filing a punishing lawsuit to try to stop me and drain me financially. They’re threatening to take everything I own. What they don’t realize is even if they leave me, my husband, and children homeless and penniless, that won’t stop us.”“By participating in this lawsuit, it would only serve to legitimize this perversion of our legal system and allow bad actors to interfere in our upcoming election,” she continued. “So I won’t be taking part.”
Lake is challenging Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) for the seat of the retiring Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.). Gallego
slightly leads Lake in early polls, though the race is a seen as a key battleground for both parties in the fight to control the Senate. Lawyers for Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake decided not to contest the allegations that she defamed a state election worker after the 2022 election. Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer (R) sued Lake last year in his personal capacity, claiming Lake defamed him after she refused…
