Attorneys for Arizona’s largest county and the state’s next governor have asked a court to levy sanctions against the lawyers who filed a frivolous election fraud lawsuit on behalf of failed gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake.
In a memorandum filed in Arizona Superior Court, the Maricopa County Attorney’s office and Ms Hobbs’ legal team asked a judge to issue an order for sanctions — financial and otherwise — against Ms Lake and the attorneys who filed a lawsuit in state court seeking to overturn Ms Lake’s loss to Ms Hobbs.
“Enough really is enough. It is past time to end unfounded attacks on elections and unwarranted accusations against elections officials. This matter was brought without any legitimate justification, let alone a substantial one,” said the Maricopa County attorneys, whose request was joined by Ms Hobbs’ team in a separate filing.
The lawyers also noted that Ms Lake had made public statements pledging to only accept the results of the 2020 election if she won, and said the “entire purpose” of Ms Lake’s failed lawsuit was “to plant baseless seeds of doubt in the electorate’s mind about the integrity and security of the 2022 General Election in Maricopa County”.
“While it is one thing to do so on TV or social media sites, it is another thing entirely to attempt to use the imprimatur of the courts to try to achieve that goal,” they said, adding that Ms Lake’s “obvious attempt to do so” was worthy of sanctions under Arizona state law.
They further argued that Ms Lake’s claims, which a judge dismissed outright last week, were “made in bad faith” that was “demonstrated by her scattershot approach to litigation, her claims’ lack of legal and factual merit,” and the lawsuit’s role in “a larger scheme” by Ms Lake meant to “ to spread disinformation about elections and election results in Maricopa County,” and pointed out that she “has not stopped,” citing a Christmas Day tweet by the former local TV news anchor sharing an article which accused the Arizona judge who dismissed her lawsuit of having been told how to rule by Democratic election attorney Marc Elias.
“Plaintiff had decided well before the election that if the results did not favor her, she would deny that they were legitimate. And she misused this Court to do so,” they said.
