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Judge Rejects Hobbs’s Demand That Kari Lake Be Santioned for Election Lawsuit

Democrat Katie Hobbs is having a tough time since she took office in January as Arizona’s governor. As my colleague Brittany Sheehan reported on Friday, her chief of staff resigning was just the latest in a wave of departures from her office.

After an Arizona judge handed down a loss to Lake’s side on the election case, he has now rejected Hobbs’ and the county’s demand that she be punished with a sanction (fine):

After ruling against Kari Lake in a remanded election trial challenging her gubernatorial loss to Katie Hobbs, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson rejected Maricopa County’s motion for sanctions against Lake on Friday, just three days after their attorneys filed the request. The county’s attorneys asserted that Lake’s team made several false statements to the court. Lake’s attorneys filed a response opposing the request on Thursday.

Thompson laid out the standard for awarding sanctions. He cited A.R.S. § 12-349, which states that sanctions are warranted where a party “brings or defends a claim without substantial justification or primarily for delay or harassment, unreasonably expands or delays the proceeding, or engages in abuse of discovery.” Thompson added, “The statute defines ‘without substantial justification’ as ‘groundless’ and ‘not made in good faith.

Thompson addressed one of the defendants’ claims specifically, but didn’t even bother going over the rest of them, brushing them off in a broad dismissal. The claim he went over was the assertion that “Lake ‘unnecessarily expanded these proceedings’ by intentionally misstating the content of a witness’s testimony in her Rule 60 motion and that she proceeded to trial on a claim she knew lacked factual merit based on her own witness’s statements.” Thompson cited Lake’s accusation that “Maricopa County officials, instead of attempting to cure ballots, systematically pushed mismatched ballots through for tabulation without following the required procedures.”

Thompson disagreed with the defendants’ characterization of the standard for sanctions. He said, “This view mistakenly looks beyond trial to the ultimate resolution of the merits and does not allow for presentation of evidence to prove a disputed claim.”

He explained, “Plaintiff’s failure to establish her claim by clear and convincing evidence does not equate to bringing a claim ‘without substantial justification’ as ‘groundless’ and ‘not made in good faith.’ Even if her argument did not prevail, Lake, through her witness, presented facts consistent with and in support of her legal argument.”

As for the rest of the claims, he said in the short 4-page ruling, “The remainder of Defendants’ allegations appear to rely on the Court’s inherent power as the authority by which they request the Court ‘award’ unspecified sanctions ‘against’ Lake’s counsel.” He said the arguments Lake’s attorneys made did not “stray from advocacy into misconduct,” and pointed out that “[O]pposing litigants in a heated dispute” will “question each other’s good faith motivated simply by their conviction of their own cause and incomprehension at the conclusions of the other.”

Friday’s ruling by Judge Thompson doesn’t mean that Lake hasn’t been laden with hundreds of thousands of dollars in sanctions and fees up to this point,which included the opposing side’s court costs.

Lake is expected to appeal the judge’s decision on her election suit. You can read more on Lake’s attorney’s arguments on the sanctions case here, as well.

As for Gov. Hobbs, as mentioned up top, her administration is looking pretty shabby in the national spotlight right about now. Maybe Hobbs should look into tidying her own glass house, instead of throwing any more stones at someone else’s.

READ 33 COMMENTS
  • Louis Galmarini says:

    This is the strategy the Left is now taking. Tie them up (legally) for years via hearings/continuances, etc.), meanwhile, Soros-backed candidates win elections and stay in office to do their job – DESTROYING AMERICA.

    We’re no longer living in a Constitutional Republic, but under a neo-Marxist regime, which not only doesn’t recognize the Constitution, it also doesn’t recognize rule of law. When our own government no longer sees us as human beings with dignity and worth but as things to be manipulated, maneuvered, mined for data, manhandled, conned into believing it has our best interests at heart, mistreated, jailed if we dare step out of line, and/or punished unjustly (without remorse)—all the while refusing to owe up to its own failings – REVOLUTION IS A RESPONSIBILITY.

    When an ILLEGITIMATE ‘Administration’ w/ it’s ILLEGITIMATE POTUS figurehead is telling you, YOU HAVE NO RIGHTS. Their message to all of us is: COMPLY OR DIE. You WILL get vaccinated, or we’ll take your livelihood from you, (in other words – you, [and your family] won’t eat) –

    THAT IS TYRANNY, MANDATED BY RUTHLESS DICTATORS – NOTHING LESS.

    History has taught us you cannot reason nor negotiate w/ dictators. Why? Because they’re psychopaths – ALL OF THEM. Many believe protesting will facilitate change. IT WILL NOT. Protests aimlessly serve as nothing more than exercises in futility. Not one country has ever been saved from dictatorial tyrants by protests – not one.

    SO, WHAT’S THE SOLUTION?

    History has taught us there’s only ONE way for a country to rid itself from dictatorship. YOU ELIMINATE THE DICTATORS – BY WHATEVER MEANS NECESSARY – DONE.

    ONE BULLET IN LESS THAN ONE SECOND – that’s all it could take to change the course of history.

    That’s all it could take to facilitate a positive path forward for change. Example:
    If someone/anyone would have been successful in assassinating Hitler ANY time before Sept.1, 1939 – WWII WOULD HAVE NEVER HAPPENED! Think about that for just a second. MILLIONS wouldn’t have been killed. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers would have been spared. Trillions of dollars wouldn’t have been expended.

    We may be Christians. However, we’re not doormats…and contrary to popular opinion, (and what the Catholic ‘church’ has preached for centuries), one of the 10 Commandments given to Moses by God NEVER commanded THOU SHALT NOT KILL. He commanded THOU SHALT NOT MURDER. There’s a difference – a BIG difference, and you need look no further than the Bible itself to find dozens of examples of righteous killing(s) – ALL w/ Gods’ blessing.

    Therefore, attempt to force me to do ANYTHING against my will, you’ll be found w/ a bullet in your head. That goes for ANYONE – including ILLEGITIMATE ‘Presidents’.

    That said: I’m done w/ this bullshit – ALL of it. I’m 71 years old, have lived a good, long life, and have no more patience to go through the (so-called) ‘legal’ means to eliminate these dictators. They don’t play by the rules, why should we? Therefore, I will do whatever it takes before they completely destroy my country. My ancestors knew how to take care of business, (the way it’s supposed to be taken care of) – swiftly and permanently. Just get me to w/i 100 feet of ANY person in this current ILLEGITIMATE ‘Administration’ – BAM! DONE! Consequences? I couldn’t care less. I may go to jail – but they’ll still be dead…and (to me), that’s all that counts. Besides, at this point, (to me) the words ‘life in prison’ are (pretty much) – meaningless. I’m going to do my part – WILL YOU?

    (Are you listening DOJ/Gestapo? When you come for me – BE PREPARED TO DIE).

  • FJB says:

    Lake needs to stop crying. The republicans held full power in the state since 2020 and never repaired the election process. If there were any cheating the blame rests on them..

  • Chucky Green says:

    Why is it the female Democrats have to be a bunch of ugly suckers that expect and assume that any guy will sleep with them? Or why do they the ones that have ‘Man Hater’ written all over them, whether straight or gay? Or are they pissed off that the female Republicans are fifty times as beautiful as they think they are?

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