Like Rudy, Kari Lake is Finding Out Election Lies Have Consequences Judge denies her motion to dismiss Ron Filipkowski2 hours ago Kari Lake thought, just like Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump, that she could defame and lie about an elections official on social media, at rallies, and on TV without consequences. She thought wrong. Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer sued Lake last year for defamation for her accusations against him alleging that he intentionally committed fraud in her election which caused her to lose her election for Arizona Governor. She filed a Motion to Dismiss the case, and the motion was just denied by the trial court. The case will now proceed to trial. The Court noted that the instances of Lake's statements about Richer alleging fraud were too numerous to mention in the Order, but he cited two particularly egregious examples of statements Lake made at her January 9, 2023 'Save Arizona Rally,' where she said: "Richer and Gates intentionally printed the wrong image on the ballot on Election Day so those ballots would intentionally be spit out of the tabulators ... Well, these guys are really, really terrible at running elections but I found out they're really good at lying." Her second statement at the same event claimed that she had "whistleblowers" who claimed that 300,000 illegal ballots were counted in her race. Lake's attorneys argued that her statements were not intentional lies made with malice, just "examples of imaginative expression or rhetorical hyperbole." The judge didn't buy it. The trial court denied her motion to dismiss based on these two statements alone: "In the Court's view, Defendant Lake's statements are provably false under prevailing Arizona law." The court then ordered the parties to agree on a trial date and inform the court of that trial schedule by January 19, 2024. You can read the court's order here. https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24233863-richer-lake-mtd-decision
Like Rudy, Kari Lake is Finding Out Election Lies Have Consequences
Judge denies her motion to dismiss
Ron Filipkowski2 hours ago
Kari Lake thought, just like Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump, that she could defame and lie about an elections official on social media, at rallies, and on TV without consequences. She thought wrong.
Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer sued Lake last year for defamation for her accusations against him alleging that he intentionally committed fraud in her election which caused her to lose her election for Arizona Governor. She filed a Motion to Dismiss the case, and the motion was just denied by the trial court. The case will now proceed to trial.
The Court noted that the instances of Lake's statements about Richer alleging fraud were too numerous to mention in the Order, but he cited two particularly egregious examples of statements Lake made at her January 9, 2023 'Save Arizona Rally,' where she said:
"Richer and Gates intentionally printed the wrong image on the ballot on Election Day so those ballots would intentionally be spit out of the tabulators ... Well, these guys are really, really terrible at running elections but I found out they're really good at lying."
Her second statement at the same event claimed that she had "whistleblowers" who claimed that 300,000 illegal ballots were counted in her race.
Lake's attorneys argued that her statements were not intentional lies made with malice, just "examples of imaginative expression or rhetorical hyperbole." The judge didn't buy it. The trial court denied her motion to dismiss based on these two statements alone:
"In the Court's view, Defendant Lake's statements are provably false under prevailing Arizona law." The court then ordered the parties to agree on a trial date and inform the court of that trial schedule by January 19, 2024.
You can read the court's order here.
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24233863-richer-lake-mtd-decision
The judge didn’t buy it.