Could former Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake be found guilty of defamation?
Lake is being sued by Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, who said in a suit filed last week that Lake, her campaign and her political group Save Arizona Fund accused him of intentionally sabotaging the election which led to Richer and his family being “the target of threats of violence, and even death and have had their lives turned upside down,” according to the suit.
In a fundraising post on Truth Social, former President Donald Trump’s social network, Lake described the suit as “BS.”
To win the case, like any libel plaintiff, Richer will have to prove the information in question was published as a statement of fact rather than an expression of opinion and that it identified Richer, was false and ruined his reputation, said Joseph Russomanno, a professor at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism.
Richer, a Republican elected in 2020, will also have to prove that Lake was at fault, which Russomanno said could get complex.
“Because Richer is a public official, he will need to achieve a higher standard than if he was a private figure,” Russomanno said in an email. “He will need to prove that Lake acted with ‘actual malice’ — that is, that she knew the information was false and stated it as fact nevertheless, or that she exhibited reckless disregard for the truth.”
He said showing that the defendant acted with actual malice was “where the plaintiff...
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