Judge in Kari Lake scenario rejects sanctions, awards $33,000 in legal costs

The decide in Kari Lake’s election obstacle on Tuesday rejected requests for sanctions and nearly $700,000 in lawyer fees but granted $33,000 to spend for qualified witnesses employed by Katie Hobbs.

In his ruling, Maricopa County Superior Court docket Choose Peter Thompson wrote that even though Lake did not supply the “very clear and convincing evidence” necessary to prevail in her case, that was not the exact same matter as declaring her lawsuit around the outcomes of the Arizona governor’s race was “groundless and offered in poor faith.”

His conclusion comes a day immediately after attorneys on both sides of the lawsuit created their arguments on whether a request for practically $700,000 in legal professional charges and other bills sought by Hobbs and Maricopa County officials had advantage.

The arguments came in a flurry of holiday break-weekend filings soon after Thompson on Saturday rejected Lake’s obstacle of the final result of the governor’s race and declared Katie Hobbs the winner of the governor’s race.

Lawyers for the defendants submitted motions trying to find $695,975 in attorneys’ expenses and other charges relevant to the situation from Lake’s camp, complying with Thompson’s buy to make their requests by Dec. 26.

The defendant lawyers, who represent the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, Gov.-elect Hobbs, as very well as Hobbs in her potential as secretary of point out, argued sanctions are warranted simply because Lake offered a frivolous circumstance that lacked any evidence to guidance her statements that difficulties with chain of custody and printers at Maricopa County vote centers have been deliberate and led to her loss.

“In fact, the overall intent of this scenario was to plant baseless seeds of question in the electorate’s head about the integrity and safety of the 2022 Standard Election in Maricopa County,” lawyers for the county wrote in their argument to Thompson.

“And even though it is one factor to do so on Tv and social media web pages, it is a further issue completely to attempt to check out to use the imprimatur of the courts to realize that target.”

Tale carries on

Between the many illustrations they cited was a tweet Lake commented on the day after losing her situation. She connected to a TownHall.com report which claimed Lake’s situation demonstrates voter disenfranchisement no lengthier matters. Lake’s comment was connected to a tweet from legal professional and conservative author Rachel Alexander that claimed “legal professionals” thought Thompson’s ruling was “ghostwritten” by attorneys representing Hobbs. Lake has considering the fact that deleted the tweet and her comment.

Lake’s attorneys late Monday responded that their lawsuit was reputable, in element because Thompson highly developed two of Lake’s promises to trial, even as he dismissed 8 many others. The trial resulted in a Christmas Eve ruling rejecting Lake’s circumstance and declaring Hobbs the winner of the governor’s race.

In arguing from sanctions, lawyers Bryan Blehm and Kurt Olsen applied the similar reasoning that Hobbs and county officials cited as they fought Lake’s lawsuit.

“Trust in the election procedure is not furthered by punishing all those who deliver authentic claims, as Plaintiff did here,” Blehm and Olsen wrote. “In truth, sanctioning Plaintiff would have the opposite outcome.”

They disputed the county’s contention that the case was proof-free of charge, pointing to the several witnesses they introduced.

Nevertheless, Thompson ruled that the electoral misconduct alleged in the scenario was not tested to be deliberate and meant to deny Lake a earn.

Thompson famous Hobbs’ margin of victory — 17, 117 votes — was outside of the threshold for an computerized recount and reported he would not reverse the will of the voters.

“A courtroom placing these a margin aside, as significantly as the Courtroom has been in a position to determine, has never been performed in the background of the United States,” Thompson wrote in his Dec. 24 ruling.

He claimed he would challenge a judgment on sanctions soon after the requests had been filed. Attorneys for the defendants offered specifics that confirmed their charges above the course of the two-day demo carried out Dec. 21 and 22. They mentioned they would want additional time to compile other litigation-similar fees if the court docket would accept them.

On Tuesday, on the other hand, Thompson limited the award of costs to the expenditures the legal crew representing Hobbs in her function as Arizona secretary of condition compensated for qualified witnesses. That arrived to $33,040.50, with a 7.5% once-a-year curiosity level.

When this is the first election challenge in which sanctions requests have been filed, the judge in Mark Finchem’s case has allowed attorneys to file a equivalent ask for. Finchem misplaced his bid for Arizona secretary of condition and a court docket dismissed his case for failure to confirm any evidence of misconduct. Those people filings are due the initially week of January.

Attorneys for Lawyer Common-elect Kris Mayes have asked for permission to file a sanctions request in the case brought by Abe Hamadeh, who shed the AG race to Mayes.

Lake mentioned she would attraction her reduce court docket losses.

Finchem took his charm right to the condition Supreme Courtroom, skipping more than the state Court docket of Appeals.

Hamadeh indicated he would wait for the benefits of the automatic recount in his race prior to determining what to do upcoming.

The recount final results will be introduced Thursday morning.

Achieve the reporter at maryjo.pitzl@arizonarepublic.com and stick to her on Twitter @maryjpitzl.

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This report originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Kari Lake will have to spend $33,000 in service fees after rejected election challenge