Kari Lake (photo, left) copycatted Trump more than any other 2022 candidate.
Lake, a former newscaster-turned-rightwing agitator who ran for Arizona governor, began squealing about a “stolen election” months before the voting even began.
That probably was a calculated appeal to Trump’s supporters, but it also drove away independents and moderate Republicans, which likely cost her an election she lost by 17,117 votes in a nominally-red state.
In Trumpian fashion, Lake claimed she won but was robbed by “sabotage” of ballot printers at polling places and ballot-stuffing by employees of an election department vendor, and sued to overturn the election results.
Lake’s strip-mall attorneys filed a scattershot legal complaint that one observer described as “throwing everything at the wall to see if something would stick.” A judge threw out most of her claims as either untimely or not allowed under Arizona’s tightly-focused election challenge statute. He allowed a fact-finding trial on two of her allegations that fell within the statute, but ultimately ruled she didn’t prove any of the four factual elements of either claim.
If this sounds complicated, that’s because it is. An election is strongly presumed valid, and it’s up to any challenger to prove in court the outcome is a result of fraud. Lake’s team failed to prove the printer problems were intentional and her own witnesses conceded those ballots were counted. They also failed to prove any votes were cast illegally.
Maricopa County then filed a motion to recover its $25,000 of legal expenses from Lake and her lawyers. Election winner Katie Hobbs, a named defendant, also asked the court for similar sanctions. In American law, each party normally pays their own expenses, but a rule designed to discourage frivolous lawsuits allows defendants in lawsuits devoid of merit to ask courts to order the plaintiffs to reimburse their legal defense expenses. Granting relief is at the judge’s discretion.
In Washington, this provision is found in Civil Rule 11; in federal practice, it’s Rule 11 of the federal practice rules. Arizona has an identical court rule, but because of time constraints, Maricopa County and Hobbs elected to pursue sanctions under a separate Arizona statute. The sanctions they’re seeking are only monetary, and do not include a disciplinary complaint against Lake’s attorneys, although that’s not out of the question at a later date.
This is technical stuff, and it totally flies over Kari Lake’s head. She understands none of it. This woman doesn’t know the difference between “fact” and “allegation,” carelessly bandies baseless accusations, and rants about everything that doesn’t go her way. Following her court loss, she accused the judge of unethical conduct (see story here). That was quickly deleted, probably after a hard kick under the table from her lawyers.
Lake took her rant against sanctions onto Steve Bannon’s podcast. That’s the wrong audience. The judge is the audience she has to persuade, and given her incompetencies, she should leave that entirely to her lawyers, and let them do all the talking, both in public and in court. But Lake doesn’t have that much sense.
She said on Bannon’s show, “It’s almost comical.” Yes, but not the way she thinks. Raw Story reports (here) that “Lake argued that her case had merit because Judge Peter Thompson allowed two of her eight complaints to go to trial.” She misunderstands. Judge Thompson simply ruled those two complaints where within the election statute, were not untimely, and she involved issues of fact. His ruling made clear she had to prove her assertions. After seeing her “evidence” he ruled they were meritless.
Lake also ranted on Bannon’s podcast about “what they did on election day to sabotage our sacred vote,” and asserted Hobbs “knew she could rig the election and walk into office.” This is nonfactual. It’s also hypocritical; the voters have spoken and Lake asked a judge to override their “sacred” votes.
What’s going on here? Simple. In MAGA Land, you don’t need facts, just a rant to mobilize Trump-loyal mobs. But when lies, fantasies, and conspiracy theories come in contact with the rule of law, they hit a brick wall. Courts are not a plaything. To win in court, you need the facts and law on your side. Lake didn’t, and hit that brick wall.
I’m sure Kari Lake has no idea what just hit her. It was rule of law, which is far beyond her very limited comprehension.
Update (12/27/22): The judge denied the requests for sanctions and only ordered Lake to pay costs, ruling that while failed to prove her claims, they “were not groundless and brought in bad faith” (see story here and read the order here).