Kari Lake’s election-denying lawsuit slammed as ‘a work of fiction’ in court
Rachel Schilke
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Arizona state lawyers argued in court that Kari Lake‘s claim of election misconduct causing her to lose the election was baseless and a “work of fiction.”
Lake filed a lawsuit on Dec. 9, seeking to overturn her election defeat and be declared as the winner. During the two-day trial for the lawsuit, state lawyers said Lake offered no evidence to prove that printer problems in Maricopa County polling places were intentional and could have changed the election’s outcome.
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Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson dismissed eight of the 10 election claims that Lake brought forward, allowing two to go to trial.
Abha Khanna, a lawyer representing Gov.-elect Katie Hobbs, said Lake’s claims were based on hearsay, speculation, and theatrics, per reports inside the courtroom via the Associated Press.
“What we got instead was just loose threads and gaping plot holes,” Khanna said. “We know now that her story was a work of fiction.”
However, Kurt Olsen, Lake’s attorney, said the lawsuit was about establishing trust, downplaying the lack of evidence they had to support the fraudulent claims.
“This is about trust, your honor. It’s about restoring people’s trust. There is not a person that’s watching this thing that isn’t shaking their head now,” Olsen said.
Lake’s attorneys focused on the defective printers in Maricopa County that caused ballots to be printed too tight to read, which ultimately caused backups in lines.
However, Maricopa County officials have long rejected allegations from Lake and others of election impropriety in the 2020 or 2022 elections. They say everyone had a chance to vote and that all ballots were counted at the election department headquarters, but Lake argued that the chain of custody was broken at an off-site facility.
Her attorneys brought forward witnesses, with one stating that the ballot images were too large for the printer to read and another stating the technological problems disenfranchised voters enough to affect the race’s outcome. County officials disputed both of those claims.
After the court hearing, Lake praised her lawyers.
“We proved without a shadow of a doubt that there was malicious intent that caused disruption so great it changed the results of the election. We provided expert testimony. We provided experts. The other side brought in activists to try to save face. They admitted that they’ve known about these ballot problems,” she said.
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Lake, who was endorsed by President Donald Trump, was one of several far-right candidates to lose their election in the 2022 midterm elections. She is no stranger to sprouting election-denier claims, as she was a vocal supporter of Trump’s claim of a stolen 2020 election, which was proven false.
Hobbs bested Lake 1,287,891 votes to 1,270,774, according to the results certified in the state Capitol.