The Arizona Supreme Court on Thursday ordered sanctions against former gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake's lawyer for "unequivocally false" claims made in court about 35,000 ballots added to last year's election vote count.
Attorneys for Gov. Katie Hobbs and Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, both Democrats, sought sanctions against Lake for bringing what they called a frivolous and unfounded lawsuit. While the Supreme Court granted the request in part, its Thursday order says Lake's lawyer must pay $2,000 to the court clerk for "repeating such false assertions." The order stops short of ordering Lake to pay her opponents' legal fees.
Much of Hobbs and Fontes' argument concentrated on Lake’s claim that 35,563 ballots were added to the results at Maricopa County’s third-party ballot processor, Runbeck Election Services, after the Supreme Court said Lake did not show evidence to prove it and cited the allegation as a basis for possible sanctions.
Lake, a former television news anchor and Republican nominee for governor, lost to Hobbs in November by less than 1 percentage point, or about 17,000 votes. She has continued to challenge the defeat in court, claiming election malfeasance by Maricopa County election officials, who are predominantly Republicans, and Hobbs, who was secretary of state at the time. Lake has asked judges to declare her the governor or order a re-do of the election in Maricopa County.
But she hasn't proved her claims before three Arizona courts who have...
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