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Arizona Republican Kari Lake provided an update to former White House strategist Steve Bannon about her lawsuit after Democrat Secretary of State Katie Hobbs was declared the winner of the Arizona gubernatorial race.
Lake lost Arizona’s gubernatorial race by roughly 17,000 votes, but she’s asking a Maricopa County Superior Court judge to declare her the winner of the election. The judge heard from Lake’s attorneys and lawyers representing her Democratic challenger on Tuesday in the lawsuit that alleges fraud.
In response to Lake’s 70-page complaint, attorneys for Secretary of State and Gov.-elect Katie Hobbs, as well as attorneys representing Maricopa County elections officials, plan to file motions to dismiss the case. Hobbs certified her own win over Lake on Monday with outgoing Arizona Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, Attorney General Mark Brnovich, and state Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert Brutinel as witnesses.
Lake spoke with Bannon extensively about her lawsuit and the battle in court during an interview on the “War Room” podcast.
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Andy Gaona, who represented the Secretary of State’s Office, asked the judge on Tuesday to keep the case on a short schedule in hopes that it will be dismissed quickly.
“Essentially a one-day hearing should give the plaintiffs the opportunity to make whatever case they believe they have, a case we believe is nonexistent,” Gaona said during Tuesday’s virtual hearing.
Gaona told the judge that Hobbs is set to be sworn in as governor in early January and that allowing the lawsuit to run too long will disrupt the peaceful transition of power. Arizona’s current GOP Gov. Doug Ducey has been term-limited.
Bryan Blehm, an attorney representing Lake, asked the judge for more time to work through arguments.
“This is a pretty significant factual hearing, your honor,” Blehm said.
“Judge Peter Thompson said he did have some concerns about timing. He scheduled two hours on Monday for oral arguments for the motions to dismiss and set a two-day hearing scheduled for later next week. There appears to be major interest in the case. Tuesday’s hearing was delayed by about half an hour because so many members of the public were trying to log into the virtual courtroom,” KJZZ reported.
Maricopa County spokesman Fields Moseley said that the courts are the appropriate place to handle such claims and that Maricopa’s election division “looks forward to sharing facts about the administration of the 2022 General Election and our work to ensure every legal voter had an opportunity to cast their ballot,” Reuters reported.
Lake believes her lawsuit will prevail and said she’s willing to “take it all the way to the Supreme Court” if necessary.
“We’re ready to go with what we believe to be an exceptional lawsuit. And we believe we will be victorious in that lawsuit,” Lake told Steve Bannon on the War Room podcast. “We’ll take it all the way to the Supreme Court if we have to. We will not stop fighting.”
“We’re ready to go with what we believe to be an exceptional lawsuit. And we believe we will be victorious in that lawsuit,” Lake told Real America’s Voice “War Room” host Steve Bannon.
“We’ll take it all the way to the Supreme Court if we have to. We will not stop fighting,” she continued.
U.S. District Judge John Tuchi of the District of Arizona rejected a Lake lawsuit earlier this year and then moved to fine her attorneys and those of Republican Secretary of State candidate Mark Finchem last week.
“Imposing sanctions, in this case, is not to ignore the importance of putting in place procedures to ensure that our elections are secure and reliable,” Tuchi wrote in his order. “It is to make clear that the Court will not condone litigants ignoring the steps that Arizona has already taken toward this end and furthering false narratives that baselessly undermine public trust at a time of increasing disinformation about, and distrust in, the democratic process.
“It is to send a message to those who might file similarly baseless suits in the future,” Tuchi’s order noted further.
