Ben Bergquam received an update from the attorneys and campaign of Kari Lake that a new suit was filed by Kari Lake in AZ Supreme Court on April 5th.
The new lawsuit is sure to prove to Lake’s detractors that she is not going to go away, and she plans to stay on offense until she gets a resolution for the people of Arizona.
In the lawsuit, Lake’s legal team questions how Lake can face sanctions over an issue that has not even been disputed by the person she is challenging, Democrat Katie Hobbs.
At issue is a sanction that Lake faces by Hobb’s legal team and the Supreme Court of AZ, who made a claim and then just sort of left it there and haven’t gone back to address their claims against Lake.
“Here, the respondents seeking sanctions have not even attempted to show any evidence rebutting Lake’s claims regarding the 35,379 ballots for which Runbeck has no record of receiving,” the new motion reads.
Lake said about the new case, “We took the sanctions briefing ordered by the AZ SCT and flipped it into a request for reconsideration of the 35K ballot injection issue at Runbeck.”
Runbeck is a third party, who Lake is seeking oversight on, questioning the handling of a massive number of ballots with signature verification problems, which Hobbs is denying Lake and her team access to examine.
From the lawsuit:
From the lawsuit:
Petitioner Kari Lake respectfully opposes Respondents’ request for sanctions for Lake’s statement in her Petition that the Court of Appeals should have considered “the undisputed fact that 35,563 unaccounted for ballots were added to the total of ballots at a third party processing facility.” The record indisputably reflects at least 35,563 Election Day early ballots, for which there is no record of delivery to Runbeck, were added at Runbeck, and that this issue was properly raised below prior
to Lake filing her Petition for Review.
Not only should the Respondents’ request for sanctions be denied, but Lake respectfully requests leave of the Court to treat this response as a motion for reconsideration of the Court’s denial of review on this chain-of-custody issue.
OPPOSITION TO MOTIONS FOR SANCTIONS
Although Maricopa did not move for sanctions, the other respondents seek sanctions and fees pursuant to A.R.S. §12-349 and ARCAP 25. As relevant here, both provisions condition sanctions and fees on appeals brought without substantial
justification or primarily for delay or harassment. See A.R.S. §12-349(A)(1)-(2); ARCAP 25.
To warrant sanctioning a party or their counsel for exercising First Amendment rights, a court must find either that they brought a claim for an improper
motive or that they pressed issues that are not “supportable by any reasonable legal theory” and for which there is no “colorable legal argument … about which reasonable attorneys could differ.”
Here, the respondents seeking sanctions have not even attempted to show any evidence rebutting Lake’s claims regarding the 35,379 ballots for which Runbeck has no record of receiving. Notably, private actors like Runbeck do not benefit from presumptions favoring government actors. Garcia v. Sedillo, 70 Ariz. 192, 200 (1950) (“the officials in this election were not public officials where we can say that there is a presumption that they acted in good faith”). Nor can anyone doubt that Lake honestly believes that electoral misconduct and illegal votes determined the
outcome of the 2022 gubernatorial election. As such, sanctions are not appropriate.
Lake has been busy with appearances this week in Iowa, and polling shows her to be very popular with US voters.
Media reports are that polling is showing Lake with the highest popularity among state GOP voters as a possible vice president to former President Donald Trump in his 2024 White House bid.
A poll released Thursday from J.L. Partners showed Lake overwhelmingly favored among potential Iowa Caucus voters who prefer Trump over Florida Governor Ron DeSantis as the Republican presidential nominee. Although DeSantis has not announced a 2024 bid, polls show him as Trump’s most formidable challenger in the GOP primaries.
Among Trump supporters, 32 percent said Lake should be the vice presidential candidate, compared to 10 percent who picked former South Carolina Governor and U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley. However, voters who want DeSantis to be the GOP nominee preferred Haley (34 percent), South Carolina Senator Tim Scott (15 percent) or former Housing Secretary Ben Carson (14 percent) over Lake (8 percent) as Trump’s running mate.
Lake also posted about the legal matters before her and what her cases are about, as reported by Dinesh DSouza, who went into detail in his own reporting:
Listen and SHARE.
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) April 6, 2023
This explains our case and where we stand.
It’s important for people to see this, yet the fake news won’t even talk about it. Let’s work around them by sharing it with everyone.
Thank you, @DineshDSouza, for laying this out so thoughtfully and succinctly. https://t.co/SNvXJmKi7N