A top election official in Arizona is suing former gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake for defamation.
Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, a Republican, filed the defamation lawsuit on Thursday against Lake, Lake For Arizona, and Save Arizona Fund, Inc., alleging that they engaged in a “concerted campaign to defame, threaten and isolate me,” he wrote in an op-ed in The Arizona Republic.
Lake, a prominent election denier, falsely claims she lost the 2022 gubernatorial race to Democrat Katie Hobbs because of fraud.
Richer says Lake claimed without evidence he had intentionally caused problems with ballot printers on Election Day to jam electronic tabulators so he could change the outcome of the election by stuffing ballot boxes with 300,000 illegal votes. A judge ruled in December that there was no clear and convincing evidence of widespread misconduct to change the outcome of the election.
The suit details nearly three dozen times she made these false statements online, at rallies and at news conferences.
“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. “Her defamatory allegations have unleashed violent vitriol and other dire consequences.”
Richer is seeking monetary damages, a court order declaring Lake’s statements false and a retraction.
