CNN
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Maricopa County Judge on Tuesday ordered Arizona Republican Kari Lake to pay compensation to Democratic governor-elect Kathy Hobbs. for some legal fees related to an election lawsuit Lake filed challenging her defeat, but it stalled of sanctioning lake for filing a claim.
Judge Peter Thompson dismissed Lake’s claim. on Saturday, concluding that it was not clear or hard evidence of misdemeanor and confirmation of Hobbs’ victory. This decision on Christmas Eve was a big defeat. for Lake, who lost to Hobbs by about 17,000 votes in November and sued in an attempt to cancel the election.
Lawyers for Hobbs is current secretary of state – accused Lake and her lawyers of knowing them challenges before the elections could not be substantiated, which would violate the legal ethics rules. They wanted sanctions against Lake and her team. Thompson disagreed. “The court considers that the plaintiff’s claims submitted by in this lawsuit was not groundless and led in bad faith,” he wrote. on Tuesday.
But he ordered Lake to pay Hobbs $33,040.50. in compensation for fees of expert witnesses and again confirmed the election of hobbs, who will be sworn in in on 5 January.
Recent decisions are latest reprimand election deniers across the country and listen back to the long stream of legal damages former US President Donald Trump injured in 2020 as he aspired challenge his defeat in the elections. Maricopa County, which covers Phoenix area and contains most of Arizona population was a hotbed of unfounded accusations of fraud in midterms and 2020 elections.
In a tweet following Lake’s Saturday decision, who sat in courtroom during the trial, but did not testify, said she would appeal decision “for for the sake of of restoration of faith and honesty in our elections.”
AND former television journalist from Arizona, Lake built her campaign around her support for Trump’s lies about massive election fraud in presidential elections in 2020. She has since doubled down, falsely claiming that she won elections of 2022.
Thompson had previously dismissed eight counts. in Lake’s pre-trial lawsuit holding that they did not constitute proper grounds for campaign under Arizona law, even if true. But he let Lake try prove on a two day trial last week two other counts involving printers and voting chains of guardianship in Maricopa County.
According to Thompson’s Sabbath Ordinance, Lake team had show that someone intentionally caused county bulletin -on-demand printers fail – and how result of that, quite “identifiable” votes were lost to change the result of elections.
“Each witness before the trial denied any personal knowledge of such an offense. The court cannot accept speculation or conjecture in place of clear and compelling evidence,” Thompson wrote.
This story was updated with additional information.
