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TAXED: Kari Lake hit with 5-figure bill for lost election challenge, avoids worse sanctions

TAXED: Kari Lake hit with 5-figure bill for lost election challenge, avoids worse sanctions

TAXED: Kari Lake hit with 5-figure bill for lost election challenge, avoids worse sanctions

Losing Arizona GOP candidate Kari Lake just got handed a five-figure bill by a Maricopa County superior court judge stemming from her doomed election challenge. (ruling embedded below)

At trial, the former Fox 10 Phoenix anchor-turned-politician didn’t come close to proving that malicious intent swung the election in favor of  Governor-elect Katie Hobbs (D). 

Yet, the failed Republican candidate will still have to pay just over $33,000 in expert witness fees and ballot expert inspection fees.

But she avoided sanctions that would’ve upped the costs of losing by twenty-fold.

If the judge upheld Governor-elect Hobbs’ and Maricopa County’s requests for sanctions and attorneys fees, it would’ve cost Kari Lake more than $700,000.

Superior court Judge Peter A. Thompson dismissed eight of Lake’s ten claims before holding a trial on two allegations that avoided the axe. Thompson issued his final ruling on Christmas Eve. Lake promised an appeal.

Arizona lawyer, journalist, and democracy advocate Paul Weich believes that the judge made a bad call in failing to sanction Lake. 

“Judge Thompson’s ruling encourages fishing expeditions. And, if you don’t catch anything sometimes, that’s just the way it goes. That’s not the right standard for Election Contests,” Weich said.

(Disclosure: Paul Weich successfully represented the author in repelling a SLAPP suit in Maricopa County, including winning an award of sanctions under the same statute in question for this case.)

Fortunately for the election-denying drag-queen-loving/hating candidate, Judge Thompson did not consider the incendiary tweet cited in sanctions motions against her

Lake deleted that tweet.

Eventually.

Now that the challenge to Arizona’s Gubernatorial race results is dispatched, the legal community is watching similar challenges to the results of the Attorney General and Secretary of State races.

“They will be coming in both the Abe Hamadeh (failed AG candidate) and Mark Finchem (failed Secretary of State candidate) races,” says Weich. 

Governor-elect Hobbs is set to be sworn in on January 5th, 2023, during her formal inaugural ceremony — returning the seat to Democratic control for the first time since 2009.

Despite that, Arizonans must still keep their eyes trained on the legal process on the off chance that there is an appellate court ruling because state law doesn’t set a final time for contesting elections.

“I think both (or more) appeals – Lake and Finchem – will go directly to the AZ Supreme Court,” concluded the attorney Weich. “Lake’s won’t become moot after Jan. 5 . Arizona’s 1st Governor became our 3rd Governor after he won an Election Contest appeal. The 2nd Governor was in office for about ten months when he was removed due to the appeal.”

Here’s a copy of the ruling

Grant Stern
is the Executive Editor of Occupy Democrats and published author. His new Meet the Candidates 2020 book series is distributed by Simon and Schuster. He's also mortgage broker, community activist and radio personality in Miami, Florida., as well as the producer of the Dworkin Report podcast. Grant is also an occasional contributor to Raw Story, Alternet, and the DC Report, and an unpaid senior advisor to the Democratic Coalition and a Director of Sunshine Agenda Inc. a government transparency nonprofit organization. Get all of his stories sent directly to your inbox here:

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