Attorneys for failed Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake of Arizona were fined $2,000 by the state Supreme Court on Thursday for making “clearly false” claims about the November election.
Lake’s attorneys have 10 days to comply. according to The Associated Press.
“Sometimes campaigning and the hype that goes with it leads to legal challenges. But once a competition enters the court arena, the rules of legal ethics apply,” said Chief Justice Robert Brutinel.
The ruling came in response to a motion by Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) and Secretary of State Adrian Fontes (D) to sanction Lake and her attorneys for falsely alleging that over 35,000 ballots were sent to a third-party processing facility for inclusion in the final Balance sheet for Maricopa County, the state’s most populous county.
Hobbs defeated Lake, who has yet to acknowledge her defeat in 2022, by over 17,000 votes.
Brutinel refused Hobbs and Fontes’ request that Lake pay their legal fees. The judge added that Lake’s lawsuit against checking signatures in Maricopa County’s early voting is still progressing.
“We respectfully disagree with the court’s decision, but look forward to bringing our case to court regarding allegations of illegal signatures and any other allegations the court may consider,” said Kurt Olsen, an attorney for Lake. said NBC News.
The state Supreme Court in March dejected However, the majority of Lake’s lawsuit against her election loss overturned a lower court’s decision that dismissed the Trump-supporting extremists’ challenge over early signing procedures. This case will be decided by a court of first instance.
Lake and other GOP candidates at the Arizona races in November also claimed to have had problems with voting printers. A report by a retired Arizona Supreme Court Justice found that the problems stemmed from paper changes and did not affect election results.
Lake, who still claims Trump won the 2020 presidential election, is in Budapest this week for the Conservative Political Action Conference.