Former Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake is attempting to get Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer's defamation lawsuit thrown out, and she has ASU's First Amendment Clinic by her side.
On Monday, Aug. 21, Lake, along with Lake for America, the Save America Fund and ASU's First Amendment Clinic, filed a motion for Arizona Superior Court Judge Jay Adleman to dismiss Richer's defamation lawsuit against Lake.
Richer's lawsuit aims to hold Lake "accountable" by seeking personal financial compensation and forcing Lake and her groups to declare their statements regarding him and elections are false and that any material that includes Richer be taken down.
Richer's original complaint was filed in June, saying Lake has repeatedly and falsely accused Richer of causing Lake’s electoral defeat, including by claiming that Richer, a Republican, sabotaged the election to prevent Republican candidates, including Lake, from winning.
At in-person rallies, speeches, on podcasts and social media, Lake claimed that Richer intentionally printed 19-inch images on 20-inch ballots to sabotage the 2022 Arizona general election, as well as inserted 300,000 "illegal," "invalid," "phony," and/or "bogus" early-vote ballots into the Maricopa County vote count, according to court documents.
Professional Victim @stephen_richer is lying again.
We're not asking these signatures to be made public.
We are asking to review them to assess whether they are legitimate or not.
We have a STRONG...
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