Top Arizona election official’s suit accuses fellow Republican Kari Lake of defamation
PHOENIX — A top Republican election official in Arizona filed a defamation lawsuit Thursday against fellow Republican Kari Lake, who falsely claims that she lost the 2022 race for governor because of fraud.
Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer said that he has faced “violent vitriol and other dire consequences” — including death threats and the loss of friendships — because of lies spread by Lake.
“Rather than accept political defeat, rather than get a new job, she has sought to undermine confidence in our elections and has mobilized millions of her followers against me,” Richer wrote in an opinion piece in the Arizona Republic.
Lake is a former Phoenix television news anchor who quickly built an enthusiastic political following as a loyal supporter of former President Trump and his lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him. She went on to narrowly lose her own race for Arizona governor last year along with a lawsuit challenging the results.
Despite her losses in court, she continues to claim that Richer and other Maricopa County officials interfered in the election to prevent her from winning.
A spokesperson for Lake did not immediately respond to a request for comment. She is openly considering a run for U.S. Senate and is considered a leading contender to be Trump’s running mate in his 2024 presidential campaign.
Since Donald Trump’s indictment on felony charges, Kari Lake and Marjorie Taylor Greene have been rallying for him to try to raise their own stature in the GOP.
The suit, filed in Maricopa County Superior Court, names Lake, her campaign and her political fundraising group as defendants. In addition to unspecified monetary damages, Richer is seeking a court order declaring Lake’s statements false and requiring her to delete them from social media.
Supreme Court precedent sets a high bar for defamation cases brought by public officials like Richer. But Dominion Voting Systems’ lawsuit against Fox News over false claims about its vote-counting equipment resulted in damaging disclosures of internal Fox messages and a $787.5-million settlement.
Richer’s lawyers wrote in their complaint that Lake has the right to criticize him but not to spread lies that bring him harm.
The suit takes issue with two claims in particular: that Richer intentionally had 19-inch ballot images printed on 20-inch paper, causing counting problems, and that he injected 300,000 bogus ballots. It details nearly three dozen times she has made the claims publicly on social media or at rallies and news conferences.
The Arizona Supreme Court has declined to hear most of Republican Kari Lake’s challenge of her defeat in the state’s gubernatorial race in November.
The suit says Richer has faced death threats, including one that became a case prosecuted by the Justice Department, and has spent thousands of dollars on home security. He said that he and his wife have altered their routines and that law enforcement has stepped up patrols around their home and workplaces.
“She has gone far outside of the bounds of protected free speech as guaranteed under the First Amendment and the Arizona Constitution,” Richer wrote in the Republic.
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