PHOENIX (AP) – A top Arizona Republican election official filed a defamation lawsuit Thursday against Kari Lake, who falsely claims she lost her 2022 gubernatorial race due to fraud.
Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer said he has faced “violent vitriol and other dire consequences” because of Lake’s lies, including death threats and loss of friendships.
“Instead of accepting political defeat, instead of getting a new job, he has tried to undermine confidence in our elections and mobilized millions of his supporters against me,” Richer wrote in a op-ed in the Republic of Arizona.
Lake is a former Phoenix TV news anchor who quickly built an enthusiastic political following as a staunch supporter of former President Donald Trump and his lie that stole the 2020 election. He narrowly lost last year his own race for Arizona governor along with a lawsuit challenging the results.
Despite his losses in court, he continues to claim that Richer and other Maricopa County officials interfered in the election to prevent him from winning.
A spokesman for Lake did not immediately respond to a request for comment. She is openly considering a run for the US Senate and is a leading candidate to be Trump’s running mate in his 2024 presidential campaign.
The lawsuit, filed in Maricopa County Superior Court, names Lake, his campaign and his political fundraising group as defendants. In addition to unspecified monetary damages, Richer is seeking an injunction declaring Lake’s statements false and forcing her to delete them from social media.
US Supreme Court precedent sets a high bar for defamation cases brought by public officials like Richer. But Dominion Voting Systems’ lawsuit against Fox News Channel over false claims about its vote-counting equipment resulted in damaging revelations of internal Fox messages and a $787.5 billion settlement.
Richer’s lawyers wrote in their complaint that Lake has the right to criticize Richer but not to spread lies that hurt him.
The suit counters in particular with two claims: that Richer intentionally had images of 19-inch ballots printed on 20-inch paper, causing counting problems, and that he injected 300,000 fake ballots. It details nearly three dozen times he made the claims publicly on social media or at rallies and press conferences.
The suit says Richer has faced death threats, including one that was prosecuted by the US Department of Justice, and has spent thousands of dollars on home security. He said he and his wife have altered their routines and law enforcement has stepped up patrols at home and at work.
“She has gone far beyond the bounds of protected free speech as guaranteed by the First Amendment and the Arizona Constitution,” Richer wrote in The Republic.
