If you haven’t been paying attention to what happened in the gubernatorial race in Arizona this year, it’s pretty simple: a crazy-eyed, MAGA-fied local TV personality named Kari Lake ran against Democratic secretary of state Katie Hobbs and lost. If you asked Lake to recount the events of the 2022 midterms, however, you’d likely get a very different story — one that includes her essentially claiming that the election was rigged from the get-go (but only if she lost), Donald Trump demanding that she be “installed” as governor, Lake threatening that we’ll all become “slaves” if she isn’t just given the job she didn’t get, using “clowns” as scapegoats, and Lake vowing revenge on the “evil bastards” who haven’t supported her or her wild claims. You got that?
As part of Lake’s extended campaign to win an election she very clearly lost, she did that Republican thing where she actually filed a lawsuit in an attempt to be declared victorious. So far, as the Arizona Republic reports, it’s not going so well.
While the judge did refuse to just outright dismiss Lake’s suit, in which she claims that there was misconduct on the part of election officials, he’s now telling her it’s time to pony up the evidence she claims to have. Which is where things might get tricky for the former news anchor. According to the Arizona Republic:
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson tossed eight of the claims in Lake’s lawsuit, but allowed two to remain that alleged an intentional plot by officials to manipulate the election in favor of Lake’s Democratic opponent, Secretary of State Katie Hobbs. In two separate orders, he ruled that a two-day trial will take place before Jan. 2, and that Hobbs and County Recorder Stephen Richer would be required to testify as Lake wished.
Lake has “alleged intentional misconduct sufficient to affect the outcome of the election and thus has stated an issue of fact that requires going beyond the pleadings,” the ruling stated. It continued that Lake must show at trial that the county’s printer malfunctions were intentionally rigged to affect the election results, and that the actions “did actually affect the outcome.”
Attorney argues to dismiss Kari Lake’s (R) lawsuit contesting the results of the Arizona governor's race, pointing out that there isn't any evidence of a "master plot" and that Lake's allegations are directed mostly at Republicans. pic.twitter.com/OTSevlxyPo
— The Recount (@therecount) December 19, 2022
When it came time for Abha Khanna, Hobbs’ lawyer, to speak to Lake’s claims of election fraud, she did NOT hold back:
According to Ms. Lake, there was a concerted, coordinated effort among signature reviewers … and Maricopa voting machine technicians to rig the election against her. This master plot was deployed on election day precisely because more Republicans tend to vote on election day. And this intentional conduct against Republican voters was driven by the Maricopa County recorder, who is a Republican, and the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, four out of five of whom are also Republican.
And remarkably, this scheme took place among some scores of election officials and non-government actors without a single trace. No documents, no emails, no leaks.
No more!?!
(Via Arizona Republic)