Judge denies Lake’s motions to dismiss Richer defamation case
by Caitlin Sievers
AZMirror
December 20, 2023 12:58 PM
Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer’s defamation suit against U.S. Senate hopeful Kari Lake will move forward, after a judge denied Lake’s motion to dismiss and found that the statements Lake made about Richer were not “rhetorical hyperbole.”
Superior Court Judge Jay Adleman issued a ruling Wednesday morning, writing that Richer had provided sufficient evidence that Lake made “false and defamatory statements” about him for the case to head toward a jury trial.
Lawyers for Lake argued during a Tuesday hearing that Adleman should dismiss the case because Richer had not supplied sufficient proof to back up his defamation claim and that through the suit, Richer was attempting to chill Lake’s right to free political speech.
But Adleman wasn’t persuaded by either of those arguments and also didn’t buy Lake attorney Jennifer Wright’s claims that Lake’s statements about Richer were “rhetorical hyperbole” and not meant to be taken as facts.
“The alleged statements in this case cannot be classified merely as ‘descriptive’ language,” Adleman wrote, dismissing Wright’s statements that Lake was only voicing her opinions about the facts in her claims about Richer.
Richer, a Republican, filed the defamation suit against Lake in July, after she and her followers spent months accusing him and other Maricopa County officials of rigging the 2022 Arizona gubernatorial race in favor of Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs. Lake, also a Republican, lost the race by more than 17,000 votes, but has continued to insist that she was the true winner, despite losing multiple court cases in which she challenged the results of the election, in trial and appeals courts, as well as before the Arizona Supreme Court.
Richer is suing Lake for two major claims she’s made repeatedly: That he was involved in the “injection” of 300,000 illegal early ballots in Maricopa County on Election Day 2022, and that he took part in intentionally programing ballot printers to print incorrectly-sized ballot images, causing tabulators to reject those ballots on Election Day.
Lake used both of these claims in her court challenges to the results of the 2022 election, and the courts rejected them both.
While incorrectly-sized ballot images did cause problems on Election Day 2022 for in-person voters, as tabulators rejected them, all of those rejected ballots were later counted, and an independent investigation found no evidence that the printers were intentionally programmed to print the wrong-sized ballot images.
Adleman pointed to several of Lake’s statements in his ruling, driving home his determination that those statements were provable as true or false.
“They printed, intentionally, the wrong image on the ballot, knowing that 75% of the people showing up on Election Day were voting for me,” Lake said of Richer and other Maricopa County officials during a Feb. 20 podcast. “They intentionally print the wrong image on the ballot so it jams the tabulator.”
The judge also referenced Lake’s comments from her Jan. 29 “Save Arizona Rally,” in his decision.
“And we know that 300,000 illegal ballots, because they didn’t have chain of custody, were counted in the final total,” Lake said during the rally.
While Wright argued during Tuesday’s hearing that an Arizona Appeals Court found Lake’s claims about the illegal ballots to be true, the appeals court actually called Lake’s math on the matter “questionable” and did not conclude that any of the ballots were illegally accepted or counted.
Adleman also found that Richer provided sufficient evidence that Lake made the statements about him with “actual malice” meaning she knew that they were false, or recklessly disregarded whether they were true or false.
This is important because public officials like Richer must prove actual malice to win defamation cases, a higher bar than for the average citizen.
“Plaintiff has set forth a factual and legal basis – consistent with First Amendment principles – to bring his defamation claims against these Defendants,” Adleman wrote.
Following the judge’s decision, Lake doubled down on her claims about the 2022 election.
“An elected government official is suing me for revealing the corruption in the elections he administered,” Lake posted on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, Wednesday morning. “He has a bunch of Soros-backed attorneys representing him. This is about taking away our First Amendment rights and interfering in the US Senate race. This case should have been tossed out of court.”
Richer is represented in the case by lawyers from the nonprofit group Protect Democracy,
Adleman was appointed to the bench in 2013 by Republican then-Gov. Jan Brewer.
Kari Lake Defames Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer
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• Page 1 of 1
Kari Lake Defames Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer
by admin » Fri Dec 22, 2023 11:54 pm
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Re: Kari Lake Defames Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Rich
by admin » Sat Dec 23, 2023 12:01 am
Judge RIPS Kari Lake to SHREDS in Defamation Order
by Ben Meiselas
MeidasTouch
Dec 22, 2023
MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on the Arizona court decision denying Kari Lake’s motion to dismiss the defamation lawsuit filed against her by the Maricopa County Elections Recorder Stephen Richer.
Transcript
[Ben Meiselas] Hello MAGA defamation machine. Meet
justice. Yep. Justice is here, and these
MAGA Republicans are getting hit with
defamation lawsuit after defamation
lawsuit, and they are losing big time.
Let's talk about Kari Lake, who
continued, and continues, to defame
Stephen Richer, who was the Maricopa
County Recorder, Republican Stephen Richer,
and she made all of these conspiracies,
all of these lies, about Steven Richer,
accused him of everything. I mean so many
defamatory statements that in the Order
that was just issued by the Maricopa
County Superior Court, they couldn't even
list it all. They just gave some examples
about her heinous conduct. And then, as
she tries to hide, the same way Rudy
Giuliani tries to hide and say, "Oh, this
is my First Amendment right to just
defame you, and just continue to make up
all of these lies," courts are stepping in,
juries are stepping in, and saying, "Uh-uh,
this is not what Law and Order is all
about.
So Stephen Richer, this Maricopa
County Recorder, again a Republican, had
enough. So he sued Kari Lake. Kari Lake
moved to dismiss the case in Arizona, and
she just lost big time.
I want to go over
the ruling with you that was just issued
by the Superior Court Judge. First, let me
show you this clip, though. This is Kari
Lake, this was recently. This was just
from the past August. And this is where
she's saying, Um, Steven Richer, who is
suing Lake, she's implying that he is
evil, and then continued with her
election denial claims. Here, play this
clip.
[Kari Lake] Why is
that? Because we have
touched the topic we're not
supposed to talk about. And we can't walk
away from this. W can't walk away from
it. And so what's happened in the last
year is now we're a year into it, and
guess what? Now they're starting to
target us. And I'll tell you what. I say
to these corrupt individuals, 'Bring it
on.' Because I'll tell you, what you know
this week: I'm being sued by one of our
elected
officials for defamation, because I've
had the courage to speak out and talk
about these disgusting elections.
[Ben Meiselas] By the
way, and here she was just recently
whining about being sued. She goes, "I'm
being sued by one of our elected
officials," talking about Richer here. Play
this clip.
[Kari Lake] Now they're going after me, and
suing me for defamation, for talking
about the elections. These people
are so evil. And I just want them to
know, if they're listening, and I'm sure
they are, there's not a damn thing you
could do to me to make me stop fighting
this. Because the truth is on our side,
who won the
election, who won
it."
[Ben Meiselas] And here is Stephen Richer in an
interview that he did with CNN, just
calling out Kari Lake's behavior. Play the
clip.
[Stephen Richer] Stop defaming my employees. Stop
saying we broke the law without any
evidence. And stop besmirching all
the hard work that they have put in. The
second thing would be, you know, come on
out Republicans. The water's warm. We'll
get out here first, you know. And
I'm happy to take some of the flak
but, you know, now's the time. Because
if we don't push back against this now,
we're going to be doing this all the way
through 2022, and possibly through 2024,
so long as some of these figures stay in
national politics. And you know the
irony that I've pointed out is that many
of these local politicians who claim
there was widespread fraud in Arizona's
elections are signing up to run for
reelection in 2022, or signing up to run
for even higher office. And it's just, you
know, your actions speak louder than your
words. If you're going to invest your
time and your money, you clearly believe
in Arizona's elections. So stop peddling
these lies just for for donations.
Q. And the
very last question. When this audit, when
they do release whatever they're going
to release how, should we look
at their
result?
[Stephen Richer] Well, I don't know what their
goal is here. Because when you hire
somebody, when you hire a company whose
CEO is somebody who believes in the Hugo
Chavez theory that he rigged American
elections, just a very large percentage
of the Arizona population isn't going to
buy any of it. So I I don't know who this
is helping at this point, but it's a
black eye for Arizona.
[Ben Meiselas] Let's take a
look at the court order right here
denying Kari Lake's motion to dismiss,
shall we? Here is what it says. Let's pull
it open. And here, it's by The
Honorable J Ryan Adelman, the Superior
Court Maricopa County, Richer v. Kari Lake. It
says,
"The court has reviewed the filings
associated with Kari Lake's motion to
dismiss pursuant to Arizona's rules of
civil procedure, 12b6, and defendants'
motion to dismiss pursuant to another
Arizona statute. The court is familiar
with the procedural history of the case."
[Ben Meiselas] It goes on to say:
"The court has further
considered the arguments of the parties
at the time of the hearing on December
19th. At the conclusion of the hearing,
the Court took the matter under
submission."
[Ben Meiselas] Here is the Court's ruling:
"Factual and Procedural history. Plaintiff
Steven Richer has initiated this
defamation action against defendants
Kari Lake, and Save America Fund Inc., and
Kari Lake for Arizona. The dispute
pertains to statements purportedly made
by defendant Lake in her campaign in the
aftermath of November 2022 Gubernatorial
election. Plaintiff asserts that
defendants have repeatedly and falsely
accused him of illegal acts giving rise
to defendant Lake's defeat in the
election. More specifically, Plaintiff has
identified two particularized categories
of allegedly defamatory statements. These
include, (1) that plaintiff was
responsible for intentionally printing
misconfigured ballots that cannot be
read by the onsite tabulators at voting
locations, and (2) that Plaintiff
intentionally inserted
300,000 illegal ballots into the
Maricopa County vote count. Plaintiff
further asserts that with actual malice,
defendants Kari Lake and others
published these allegedly defamatory statements
during speeches, interviews
and throughout their social media
accounts. The First Amendment Complaint
includes numerous examples in which
defendant apparently published their
allegations against him in the weeks
following the election. The totality of
the referenced statements identified in
the First Amendment Complaint would be
far too extensive to identify. Here,
however, the Court will include two
prominent examples by way of
illustration. The first example relates
to the allegations regarding the
misconfigured ballots, and pertains to
statements extensively made by
defendant Lake during a speech at the
Save Arizona rally on January 29, 2023.
She purportedly stated the following:
[Kari Lake] 'We're supposed to have 20-in image on a
20-in ballot. But Richer and Richer and
Gates and their crew, printed a 19-in
image, the wrong image, on the ballot, so
that the tabulators would jam all day
long. That's exactly what happened. They
did not want us to notice this. You know,
the only person, the only thing they
wanted to notice this was the tabulator,
so that they would jam and spit out
ballots, which is exactly what happened,
all day on Election Day. Ballots got spit
out. They got spit out over and over
again. Let's show those two again, these
two men, Richer and Gates, intentionally
printed the wrong image on the ballot on
Election Day, so that those ballots would
intentionally be spit out of the
tabulators. Well, these guys are really,
really terrible at running elections, but
I found out they're really good at lying.'
The second example arises from the same
event, and pertains to defendants'
accusation regarding 300,000 illegal
ballots."
[Ben Meiselas] It's quoting Kari Lake.
[Kari Lake] 'First of
all, let's start with the 300,000 ballots
with zero chain of custody. I'm going to
explain this in slow motion, in real and
easy terms for the simpletons in the
media back there. Testimony from our
whistleblower down at Runbeck proves
that 300,000 ballots lack chain of
custody. For those of you who don't
understand what chain of custody is, it
is basically the law that ensures that
illegal ballots don't get counted, and
don't infect our elections. As we know
that 300,000 illegal ballots came in
because they didn't have chain of
custody, were counted in the final total."
[Ben Meiselas] Defendants have now filed various
motions to dismiss, and the Court goes
out and says, "Look, the plaintiff here,
Steven Richer, has set forth sufficient
facts," that means that this case
can't be dismissed right now. The
Court goes through defamation, and First
Amendment considerations, and says that
this speech by Kari Lake is not
protected under the First Amendment, and
that the Plaintiff has sufficient facts
to demonstrate that the disputed
statements are provably false. The court
goes through even the other
holdings in the trials, that Kari Lake
continued to lose in courts. And as
she spread these dangerous lies and
conspiracy theories, and all of this was
demonstrably false. And then it
goes on to say:
"Defendant Lake's statements do
not constitute mere rhetorical hyperbole."
[Ben Meiselas] That's one of the arguments that these
MAGAs always make. They go, "Oh, we didn't
really," -- you know, cuz it's always gaslighting, "we
didn't really mean what we said. We were
just speaking hyperbolically. This was
all hyperbole." And the Court said, "No,
that's not hyperbole, that's not
exaggeration, you're accusing Stephen Richer
of committing crimes."
But just think about that that that's what they argue:
"Oh, it's hyperbole. The court says that's
not a defense, right here. And then it
goes on to say, "Look, for all the
foregoing reasons, the Court finds that
plaintiff Steven Richer, has established
the cause of action to get to the next
stage." And as I think about Kari Lake
where this is headed. You know where this
is headed, right? To Rudy Giulianiville.
This was Giuliani after the first day of
his trial where he was hit with a $148
million verdict. Play this clip.
[Rudy Giuliani] Whatever
happened to them, which it's
unfortunate if other people overreacted,
but everything I said about them is true.
Q. So you regret what you did to Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss?
[Rudy Giuliani Of course
I don't regret. I told the truth. They
they were engaged in changing votes.
Q. There's no proof of that.
[Rudy Giuliani] Your damn right
there is. Stay tuned.
[Ben Meiselas] You know, and I'm
sure that Stephen Richer is probably
looking at that expert, Dr. Humphreys, who
testified for Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss.
And I think Richer probably hires that
expert as well, who can talk through the
reputational harm, the reputational
damage, that these types of lies cause. I
mean, you think about someone like
Richer, again a Republican, someone who's
ostensibly ambitious, who's
rising through the political ranks, and
now has all of these death threats, and
now is tainted by all of these lies, and
again, just heinous, heinous lies.
But what is great is that the wheels of
justice are moving slower than we'd all
like, but we're in the justice period
right now, or as some would say, we're in
the find-out stage right now. And we're
seeing that with Giuliani, with what's
going on in the Colorado Supreme Court,
with what's going on in the DC Circuit
Court of Appeals, what's going on in the
defamation cases against Trump and
others actions, actions have consequences. And one
of the things that fascism wants us all
to do is to run away from, you know, just
to feel overwhelmed, and to not
fight back, and to not stand up for
ourselves, or to stand up for the true
principles of our country. And as
we think about these wins that people
like Steven Richer and Ruby Freeman and
Shaye Moss, and E. Gene Carroll and others
are having, New York attorney
general Leticia James-- that's
encouraging news that we should all take
with us. I want to share that with you.
by Ben Meiselas
MeidasTouch
Dec 22, 2023
MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on the Arizona court decision denying Kari Lake’s motion to dismiss the defamation lawsuit filed against her by the Maricopa County Elections Recorder Stephen Richer.
Transcript
[Ben Meiselas] Hello MAGA defamation machine. Meet
justice. Yep. Justice is here, and these
MAGA Republicans are getting hit with
defamation lawsuit after defamation
lawsuit, and they are losing big time.
Let's talk about Kari Lake, who
continued, and continues, to defame
Stephen Richer, who was the Maricopa
County Recorder, Republican Stephen Richer,
and she made all of these conspiracies,
all of these lies, about Steven Richer,
accused him of everything. I mean so many
defamatory statements that in the Order
that was just issued by the Maricopa
County Superior Court, they couldn't even
list it all. They just gave some examples
about her heinous conduct. And then, as
she tries to hide, the same way Rudy
Giuliani tries to hide and say, "Oh, this
is my First Amendment right to just
defame you, and just continue to make up
all of these lies," courts are stepping in,
juries are stepping in, and saying, "Uh-uh,
this is not what Law and Order is all
about.
So Stephen Richer, this Maricopa
County Recorder, again a Republican, had
enough. So he sued Kari Lake. Kari Lake
moved to dismiss the case in Arizona, and
she just lost big time.
I want to go over
the ruling with you that was just issued
by the Superior Court Judge. First, let me
show you this clip, though. This is Kari
Lake, this was recently. This was just
from the past August. And this is where
she's saying, Um, Steven Richer, who is
suing Lake, she's implying that he is
evil, and then continued with her
election denial claims. Here, play this
clip.
[Kari Lake] Why is
that? Because we have
touched the topic we're not
supposed to talk about. And we can't walk
away from this. W can't walk away from
it. And so what's happened in the last
year is now we're a year into it, and
guess what? Now they're starting to
target us. And I'll tell you what. I say
to these corrupt individuals, 'Bring it
on.' Because I'll tell you, what you know
this week: I'm being sued by one of our
elected
officials for defamation, because I've
had the courage to speak out and talk
about these disgusting elections.
[Ben Meiselas] By the
way, and here she was just recently
whining about being sued. She goes, "I'm
being sued by one of our elected
officials," talking about Richer here. Play
this clip.
[Kari Lake] Now they're going after me, and
suing me for defamation, for talking
about the elections. These people
are so evil. And I just want them to
know, if they're listening, and I'm sure
they are, there's not a damn thing you
could do to me to make me stop fighting
this. Because the truth is on our side,
who won the
election, who won
it."
[Ben Meiselas] And here is Stephen Richer in an
interview that he did with CNN, just
calling out Kari Lake's behavior. Play the
clip.
[Stephen Richer] Stop defaming my employees. Stop
saying we broke the law without any
evidence. And stop besmirching all
the hard work that they have put in. The
second thing would be, you know, come on
out Republicans. The water's warm. We'll
get out here first, you know. And
I'm happy to take some of the flak
but, you know, now's the time. Because
if we don't push back against this now,
we're going to be doing this all the way
through 2022, and possibly through 2024,
so long as some of these figures stay in
national politics. And you know the
irony that I've pointed out is that many
of these local politicians who claim
there was widespread fraud in Arizona's
elections are signing up to run for
reelection in 2022, or signing up to run
for even higher office. And it's just, you
know, your actions speak louder than your
words. If you're going to invest your
time and your money, you clearly believe
in Arizona's elections. So stop peddling
these lies just for for donations.
Q. And the
very last question. When this audit, when
they do release whatever they're going
to release how, should we look
at their
result?
[Stephen Richer] Well, I don't know what their
goal is here. Because when you hire
somebody, when you hire a company whose
CEO is somebody who believes in the Hugo
Chavez theory that he rigged American
elections, just a very large percentage
of the Arizona population isn't going to
buy any of it. So I I don't know who this
is helping at this point, but it's a
black eye for Arizona.
[Ben Meiselas] Let's take a
look at the court order right here
denying Kari Lake's motion to dismiss,
shall we? Here is what it says. Let's pull
it open. And here, it's by The
Honorable J Ryan Adelman, the Superior
Court Maricopa County, Richer v. Kari Lake. It
says,
"The court has reviewed the filings
associated with Kari Lake's motion to
dismiss pursuant to Arizona's rules of
civil procedure, 12b6, and defendants'
motion to dismiss pursuant to another
Arizona statute. The court is familiar
with the procedural history of the case."
[Ben Meiselas] It goes on to say:
"The court has further
considered the arguments of the parties
at the time of the hearing on December
19th. At the conclusion of the hearing,
the Court took the matter under
submission."
[Ben Meiselas] Here is the Court's ruling:
"Factual and Procedural history. Plaintiff
Steven Richer has initiated this
defamation action against defendants
Kari Lake, and Save America Fund Inc., and
Kari Lake for Arizona. The dispute
pertains to statements purportedly made
by defendant Lake in her campaign in the
aftermath of November 2022 Gubernatorial
election. Plaintiff asserts that
defendants have repeatedly and falsely
accused him of illegal acts giving rise
to defendant Lake's defeat in the
election. More specifically, Plaintiff has
identified two particularized categories
of allegedly defamatory statements. These
include, (1) that plaintiff was
responsible for intentionally printing
misconfigured ballots that cannot be
read by the onsite tabulators at voting
locations, and (2) that Plaintiff
intentionally inserted
300,000 illegal ballots into the
Maricopa County vote count. Plaintiff
further asserts that with actual malice,
defendants Kari Lake and others
published these allegedly defamatory statements
during speeches, interviews
and throughout their social media
accounts. The First Amendment Complaint
includes numerous examples in which
defendant apparently published their
allegations against him in the weeks
following the election. The totality of
the referenced statements identified in
the First Amendment Complaint would be
far too extensive to identify. Here,
however, the Court will include two
prominent examples by way of
illustration. The first example relates
to the allegations regarding the
misconfigured ballots, and pertains to
statements extensively made by
defendant Lake during a speech at the
Save Arizona rally on January 29, 2023.
She purportedly stated the following:
[Kari Lake] 'We're supposed to have 20-in image on a
20-in ballot. But Richer and Richer and
Gates and their crew, printed a 19-in
image, the wrong image, on the ballot, so
that the tabulators would jam all day
long. That's exactly what happened. They
did not want us to notice this. You know,
the only person, the only thing they
wanted to notice this was the tabulator,
so that they would jam and spit out
ballots, which is exactly what happened,
all day on Election Day. Ballots got spit
out. They got spit out over and over
again. Let's show those two again, these
two men, Richer and Gates, intentionally
printed the wrong image on the ballot on
Election Day, so that those ballots would
intentionally be spit out of the
tabulators. Well, these guys are really,
really terrible at running elections, but
I found out they're really good at lying.'
The second example arises from the same
event, and pertains to defendants'
accusation regarding 300,000 illegal
ballots."
[Ben Meiselas] It's quoting Kari Lake.
[Kari Lake] 'First of
all, let's start with the 300,000 ballots
with zero chain of custody. I'm going to
explain this in slow motion, in real and
easy terms for the simpletons in the
media back there. Testimony from our
whistleblower down at Runbeck proves
that 300,000 ballots lack chain of
custody. For those of you who don't
understand what chain of custody is, it
is basically the law that ensures that
illegal ballots don't get counted, and
don't infect our elections. As we know
that 300,000 illegal ballots came in
because they didn't have chain of
custody, were counted in the final total."
[Ben Meiselas] Defendants have now filed various
motions to dismiss, and the Court goes
out and says, "Look, the plaintiff here,
Steven Richer, has set forth sufficient
facts," that means that this case
can't be dismissed right now. The
Court goes through defamation, and First
Amendment considerations, and says that
this speech by Kari Lake is not
protected under the First Amendment, and
that the Plaintiff has sufficient facts
to demonstrate that the disputed
statements are provably false. The court
goes through even the other
holdings in the trials, that Kari Lake
continued to lose in courts. And as
she spread these dangerous lies and
conspiracy theories, and all of this was
demonstrably false. And then it
goes on to say:
"Defendant Lake's statements do
not constitute mere rhetorical hyperbole."
[Ben Meiselas] That's one of the arguments that these
MAGAs always make. They go, "Oh, we didn't
really," -- you know, cuz it's always gaslighting, "we
didn't really mean what we said. We were
just speaking hyperbolically. This was
all hyperbole." And the Court said, "No,
that's not hyperbole, that's not
exaggeration, you're accusing Stephen Richer
of committing crimes."
But just think about that that that's what they argue:
"Oh, it's hyperbole. The court says that's
not a defense, right here. And then it
goes on to say, "Look, for all the
foregoing reasons, the Court finds that
plaintiff Steven Richer, has established
the cause of action to get to the next
stage." And as I think about Kari Lake
where this is headed. You know where this
is headed, right? To Rudy Giulianiville.
This was Giuliani after the first day of
his trial where he was hit with a $148
million verdict. Play this clip.
[Rudy Giuliani] Whatever
happened to them, which it's
unfortunate if other people overreacted,
but everything I said about them is true.
Q. So you regret what you did to Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss?
[Rudy Giuliani Of course
I don't regret. I told the truth. They
they were engaged in changing votes.
Q. There's no proof of that.
[Rudy Giuliani] Your damn right
there is. Stay tuned.
[Ben Meiselas] You know, and I'm
sure that Stephen Richer is probably
looking at that expert, Dr. Humphreys, who
testified for Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss.
And I think Richer probably hires that
expert as well, who can talk through the
reputational harm, the reputational
damage, that these types of lies cause. I
mean, you think about someone like
Richer, again a Republican, someone who's
ostensibly ambitious, who's
rising through the political ranks, and
now has all of these death threats, and
now is tainted by all of these lies, and
again, just heinous, heinous lies.
But what is great is that the wheels of
justice are moving slower than we'd all
like, but we're in the justice period
right now, or as some would say, we're in
the find-out stage right now. And we're
seeing that with Giuliani, with what's
going on in the Colorado Supreme Court,
with what's going on in the DC Circuit
Court of Appeals, what's going on in the
defamation cases against Trump and
others actions, actions have consequences. And one
of the things that fascism wants us all
to do is to run away from, you know, just
to feel overwhelmed, and to not
fight back, and to not stand up for
ourselves, or to stand up for the true
principles of our country. And as
we think about these wins that people
like Steven Richer and Ruby Freeman and
Shaye Moss, and E. Gene Carroll and others
are having, New York attorney
general Leticia James-- that's
encouraging news that we should all take
with us. I want to share that with you.
- admin
- Site Admin
- Posts: 36180
- Joined: Thu Aug 01, 2013 5:21 am
Re: Kari Lake Defames Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Rich
by admin » Mon Mar 11, 2024 4:13 am
Kari Lake HIT with DEVASTATING NEWS by AZ Supreme Court
by Dave Aronberg
MeidasTouch
Mar 10, 2024
The Arizona Supreme Court has dismissed Kari Lake's appeal of an important defamation lawsuit against her, paving the way to more consequences for the failed gubernatorial candidate. Palm Beach State Attorney Dave Aronberg reports.
Transcript
you say you care about the fentenel crisis
and our kids I deep care deeply so if
you care so deeply about this couldn't
you couldn't you actually do something
about it if you stopped the
about the last election if you had just
acknowledged that that Trump had lost
and acknowledged that you had lost you'd
probably you might you'd probably be in
good shape to do something you probably
would have won your Governor's race had
you you had you just talked about things
people cared about instead of the
election fraud so sometimes don't you
ever think to yourself I wish I could
just stop talking about this fake thing
that Donald Trump made me make up so
that I could actually talk about the
stuff that's important cuz we agree
about fentel I agree I wish we could
deal with that I talked about that all
the time of the campaign TR I'm sorry
you weren't with me I'm sorry you
weren't with me every step of the way
the people of Arizona understand me and
they know me and they care about me and
I care about them more bad news for
magga conspiracy theorist and election
denier car Lake who's running for the US
Senate in Arizona after losing the
governor's race 2 years ago not only
only is she going to lose her Senate
race in November but now she's lost in
the Arizona Supreme Court in a major
defamation case brought by the Maricopa
County Recorder Steven richer a
republican over her constant election
lies let's discuss I'm Dave aronberg
state attorney for Palm Beach County aka
the Florida law man here on the midest
touch Network I appreciate all your
views and your likes and your comments
please keep them coming and as far as
car like she lost last time even though
she claims she won she's like Donald
Trump they believe in democracy only
when they win and after the election she
attacked the recorder for Maricopa
County which is the largest county in
Arizona the County Commission or they
call them supervisors there controlled
by Republicans and she called out the
recorder by name now the recorder is
like the election supervisor uh Steven
richer the other official she called out
was a guy named Bill Gates a supervisor
I know not that Bill Gates and uh just
as an aside uh the supervisor there Bill
Gates another Republican he's a friend
of mine I went to law school with him
it's a small world right and he was a
old school Republican you know the kind
that you may disagree with on policy but
you never had to doubt their loyalty to
the country or to democracy I miss the
old days and true to his principles
he maintained his belief in a fair
election and when the election results
came out he certified them and that was
that until then K Lake defamed them both
and attacked them both and this led to
the defamation case being brought by
Steven richer the recorder because it
was Steven richer who was the real
number one object of uh Cary Lakes ey in
fact it was so over the top that step
Richard's family got death threats and
as a result he said that enough I'm
going to file this defamation suit
against a fellow Republican and so what
happened it went to the trial court and
the judge there heard a motion to
dismiss by Cary Lake and denied it and
then on appeal here we are about eight
months later the Arizona Supreme Court
has ruled for richer saying that the
defamation case will continue and he Al
the Supreme Court also lifted a
temporary stay
on the defamation case so it's game on
in Arizona and I'll speak to what
happens next but as far as the lawsuit
itself it contains many instances in
which lake repeats her accusations over
and over again even though she was told
this was false even though she knew
clearly they were false but she kept
citing them as fact like saying that
Richard and and Bill Gates printed a
19in image the wrong image on the ballot
so that the tabulators would jam all day
long this is her exact quote that she
used she said that's exactly what
happened they did not want us to notice
this they didn't want us to notice it
and then the lawsuit also notes how Lake
claimed that richer inserted
300,000 invalid ballots into the
County's vote to keep her from winning
the
election as far as what else is in that
lawsuit let's go back to our friend Ben
melis who8 months ago did a video on the
filing of this defamation case and he
quoted from the lawsuit here's a clip
Lake made false the false and defamatory
ballot size sabotage and bogus ballot
injection claims while photographs of
richer and Gates were prominently
displayed behind her and she printed
those photographs repeatedly pointed to
those photographs repeatedly while
speaking Lake made the false ballot size
sabotage and bogus ballot injection
accusations against richer weeks after
the Arizona Superior Court found that
Lake had provided nothing more than
speculation and conjecture to support
her claims of intentional misconduct and
that she had quote brought no evidence
to contradict testimony that the 2022
election was conducted in accordance
with established procedures for that
reason as well as many others Lake knew
that her ballot size sabotage and bogus
ballot injection claims were false
before the January 29 2023 rally or at a
minimum she was Reckless as to the truth
or falsity of these claims so now 8
months later it's on and the next step
will be Discovery where that's the fun
park is Steven Richard is going to be
able to depose K Lake he's going to be
able to get documents from her and just
like we saw with other instances of
election denier like true the vote in
Georgia when they're put under oath when
they're required to turn over documents
they got nothing and all their stuff
about well we have secret Witnesses you
got to come forward with them you can't
hide behind their request for anonymity
nope you got to provide it and you'll
see that she just created this stuff out
of thin air and the timing couldn't be
worse for car Lake because it's coming
during her heated race for the US Senate
it's now one-on-one with her and Ruben
gyo the Democrat it was originally a
threers race with Kiron Cinema the
former Democrat turned independent but
now with Cinema out
I it's it's a two-person race and I
think that's going to give GGO in the
end a better shot because the people who
would vote for Cinema would have been
some uh disaffected Republicans uh some
Democrats who didn't want to vote for
gyo who's more Progressive but in the
end you've got gyo versus a radical
election denier someone who doesn't
believe in democracy someone who has a
lot of Charisma but has used it for
nefarious purposes I mean she's been
Breaking Bad for a while while now so in
Discovery a lot of the information will
have to come to light or lack of
information and that's going to be
really damaging for Cary Lake in the
middle of a heated Senate race now then
after discovery is the trial when will
the trial be it's not set yet is it
possible before the election sure it's a
Civil Trial not a criminal one but even
if it's after the election the prospect
of this defamation trial and the
discovery is going to be really bad bad
for her in a close race and that could
also play into the presidential election
which is supposed to be close in Arizona
when you have the person on top of the
ballot aside from the presidential race
being someone like Carrie lake so I
think that as we've seen 2024 continues
to be the year of accountability for car
Lake the Bell Tolls for thee in response
to the Arizona Supreme Court's decision
Steven richer said that today's decision
is a crucial step forward in holding car
Lake accountable for the real harm her
lies about her election loss have caused
me and my family with this decision
defendants days of dodging consequences
for their dangerous lies are finally
coming to a close he also said that he
doesn't plan to settle this case unless
there's a real monetary payment so it's
going to get really interesting because
he wants to get paid and rightly so all
the death threats and the lies he's had
to endure repeatedly from this
horrible individual this guy Stephen
richer is going to end up I think a lot
richer after winning this defamation
suit his lawyers are the same lawyers
who sued Rudy Giuliani for defamation
and they got $148 million judgment and
that led to Rude giuliani's
bankruptcy that could be the future for
Cary Lake as well could also be the
future for the my pillow guy and Sydney
Powell and all these others who keep
promoting election eyes because the
wheels of Justice mooves slowly but
eventually they'll run you over I'm Dave
aronberg aka the Florida law man if you
like this video please like it and
subscribe and I'll see you next time
love this video make sure you stay up
toate on the latest breaking news and
all things midest by signing up to the
midest touch newsletter at midest
touch.com
newsletter
by Dave Aronberg
MeidasTouch
Mar 10, 2024
The Arizona Supreme Court has dismissed Kari Lake's appeal of an important defamation lawsuit against her, paving the way to more consequences for the failed gubernatorial candidate. Palm Beach State Attorney Dave Aronberg reports.
Transcript
you say you care about the fentenel crisis
and our kids I deep care deeply so if
you care so deeply about this couldn't
you couldn't you actually do something
about it if you stopped the
about the last election if you had just
acknowledged that that Trump had lost
and acknowledged that you had lost you'd
probably you might you'd probably be in
good shape to do something you probably
would have won your Governor's race had
you you had you just talked about things
people cared about instead of the
election fraud so sometimes don't you
ever think to yourself I wish I could
just stop talking about this fake thing
that Donald Trump made me make up so
that I could actually talk about the
stuff that's important cuz we agree
about fentel I agree I wish we could
deal with that I talked about that all
the time of the campaign TR I'm sorry
you weren't with me I'm sorry you
weren't with me every step of the way
the people of Arizona understand me and
they know me and they care about me and
I care about them more bad news for
magga conspiracy theorist and election
denier car Lake who's running for the US
Senate in Arizona after losing the
governor's race 2 years ago not only
only is she going to lose her Senate
race in November but now she's lost in
the Arizona Supreme Court in a major
defamation case brought by the Maricopa
County Recorder Steven richer a
republican over her constant election
lies let's discuss I'm Dave aronberg
state attorney for Palm Beach County aka
the Florida law man here on the midest
touch Network I appreciate all your
views and your likes and your comments
please keep them coming and as far as
car like she lost last time even though
she claims she won she's like Donald
Trump they believe in democracy only
when they win and after the election she
attacked the recorder for Maricopa
County which is the largest county in
Arizona the County Commission or they
call them supervisors there controlled
by Republicans and she called out the
recorder by name now the recorder is
like the election supervisor uh Steven
richer the other official she called out
was a guy named Bill Gates a supervisor
I know not that Bill Gates and uh just
as an aside uh the supervisor there Bill
Gates another Republican he's a friend
of mine I went to law school with him
it's a small world right and he was a
old school Republican you know the kind
that you may disagree with on policy but
you never had to doubt their loyalty to
the country or to democracy I miss the
old days and true to his principles
he maintained his belief in a fair
election and when the election results
came out he certified them and that was
that until then K Lake defamed them both
and attacked them both and this led to
the defamation case being brought by
Steven richer the recorder because it
was Steven richer who was the real
number one object of uh Cary Lakes ey in
fact it was so over the top that step
Richard's family got death threats and
as a result he said that enough I'm
going to file this defamation suit
against a fellow Republican and so what
happened it went to the trial court and
the judge there heard a motion to
dismiss by Cary Lake and denied it and
then on appeal here we are about eight
months later the Arizona Supreme Court
has ruled for richer saying that the
defamation case will continue and he Al
the Supreme Court also lifted a
temporary stay
on the defamation case so it's game on
in Arizona and I'll speak to what
happens next but as far as the lawsuit
itself it contains many instances in
which lake repeats her accusations over
and over again even though she was told
this was false even though she knew
clearly they were false but she kept
citing them as fact like saying that
Richard and and Bill Gates printed a
19in image the wrong image on the ballot
so that the tabulators would jam all day
long this is her exact quote that she
used she said that's exactly what
happened they did not want us to notice
this they didn't want us to notice it
and then the lawsuit also notes how Lake
claimed that richer inserted
300,000 invalid ballots into the
County's vote to keep her from winning
the
election as far as what else is in that
lawsuit let's go back to our friend Ben
melis who8 months ago did a video on the
filing of this defamation case and he
quoted from the lawsuit here's a clip
Lake made false the false and defamatory
ballot size sabotage and bogus ballot
injection claims while photographs of
richer and Gates were prominently
displayed behind her and she printed
those photographs repeatedly pointed to
those photographs repeatedly while
speaking Lake made the false ballot size
sabotage and bogus ballot injection
accusations against richer weeks after
the Arizona Superior Court found that
Lake had provided nothing more than
speculation and conjecture to support
her claims of intentional misconduct and
that she had quote brought no evidence
to contradict testimony that the 2022
election was conducted in accordance
with established procedures for that
reason as well as many others Lake knew
that her ballot size sabotage and bogus
ballot injection claims were false
before the January 29 2023 rally or at a
minimum she was Reckless as to the truth
or falsity of these claims so now 8
months later it's on and the next step
will be Discovery where that's the fun
park is Steven Richard is going to be
able to depose K Lake he's going to be
able to get documents from her and just
like we saw with other instances of
election denier like true the vote in
Georgia when they're put under oath when
they're required to turn over documents
they got nothing and all their stuff
about well we have secret Witnesses you
got to come forward with them you can't
hide behind their request for anonymity
nope you got to provide it and you'll
see that she just created this stuff out
of thin air and the timing couldn't be
worse for car Lake because it's coming
during her heated race for the US Senate
it's now one-on-one with her and Ruben
gyo the Democrat it was originally a
threers race with Kiron Cinema the
former Democrat turned independent but
now with Cinema out
I it's it's a two-person race and I
think that's going to give GGO in the
end a better shot because the people who
would vote for Cinema would have been
some uh disaffected Republicans uh some
Democrats who didn't want to vote for
gyo who's more Progressive but in the
end you've got gyo versus a radical
election denier someone who doesn't
believe in democracy someone who has a
lot of Charisma but has used it for
nefarious purposes I mean she's been
Breaking Bad for a while while now so in
Discovery a lot of the information will
have to come to light or lack of
information and that's going to be
really damaging for Cary Lake in the
middle of a heated Senate race now then
after discovery is the trial when will
the trial be it's not set yet is it
possible before the election sure it's a
Civil Trial not a criminal one but even
if it's after the election the prospect
of this defamation trial and the
discovery is going to be really bad bad
for her in a close race and that could
also play into the presidential election
which is supposed to be close in Arizona
when you have the person on top of the
ballot aside from the presidential race
being someone like Carrie lake so I
think that as we've seen 2024 continues
to be the year of accountability for car
Lake the Bell Tolls for thee in response
to the Arizona Supreme Court's decision
Steven richer said that today's decision
is a crucial step forward in holding car
Lake accountable for the real harm her
lies about her election loss have caused
me and my family with this decision
defendants days of dodging consequences
for their dangerous lies are finally
coming to a close he also said that he
doesn't plan to settle this case unless
there's a real monetary payment so it's
going to get really interesting because
he wants to get paid and rightly so all
the death threats and the lies he's had
to endure repeatedly from this
horrible individual this guy Stephen
richer is going to end up I think a lot
richer after winning this defamation
suit his lawyers are the same lawyers
who sued Rudy Giuliani for defamation
and they got $148 million judgment and
that led to Rude giuliani's
bankruptcy that could be the future for
Cary Lake as well could also be the
future for the my pillow guy and Sydney
Powell and all these others who keep
promoting election eyes because the
wheels of Justice mooves slowly but
eventually they'll run you over I'm Dave
aronberg aka the Florida law man if you
like this video please like it and
subscribe and I'll see you next time
love this video make sure you stay up
toate on the latest breaking news and
all things midest by signing up to the
midest touch newsletter at midest
touch.com
newsletter
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- Site Admin
- Posts: 36180
- Joined: Thu Aug 01, 2013 5:21 am
Re: Kari Lake Defames Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Rich
by admin » Mon Mar 18, 2024 12:20 am
TOP AZ Election Officials DROP THE HAMMER on Trump and MAGA
MeidasTouch
Mar 17, 2024
Palm Beach State Prosecutor Dave Aronberg chats with Arizona election officials Stephen Richer and Bill Gates about MAGA election lies in the wake of the 2020 election.
Transcript
hello I'm Dave aronberg with the midest
touch Network we have a real treat today
we're here with two guys who have taken
it to carrye Lake this is supervisor
Bill Gates who is an old friend of mine
from law school and none other than
Stephen richer the recorder in Arizona
the one who is suing Cary Lake for
defamation after she defamed him with
the whole election nonsense and both
these guys are Republicans but they're
like Republican classic you know they
are uh they're old school Republicans
who actually uh believe in elections and
the rule of law and uh so uh kudos to
them on this pro-democracy network
welcome Stephen Richard and Bill
Gates thanks for having us thanks St
appreciate it yeah collector's edition
Republicans exactly and uh if you're
wondering no it's not that Bill Gates uh
this is uh this is the Bill Gates who
help save our democracy he's probably
not worth as much as the other Bill
Gates but he has meant a lot to our
country uh bill it's good to see you
again and um let's get right into it
because Stephen you were the recorder or
you are the recorder in Maricopa County
that's like the largest county in
Arizona bill is the supervisor there so
he's like a county commissioner and both
you guys stood by your election results
so Stephen tell us when was it when you
first learned that KY Lake had gone off
the deep end was ATT attacking you
personally for trying to supposedly
steal the election for Joe
Biden well GE this has been going on for
a few years now and so both the recorder
which is a countywide position and the
five member Board of Supervisors have
election related responsibilities in
Maricopa County and that's true of the
other 14 Counties in Arizona but really
it's been this way in Maricopa County
since 2021 really since the aftermath of
2020 and I joined the team in 2021 But
Bill's been going through this now for
consecutive Cycles but following the
2022 election we heard more allegations
of stolen elections and they got very
specific and there so one of the things
that really struck me and makes this
sort of a unique situation and was right
for a defamation action was that the
claims were very specific that they were
easily falsifiable that they were
presented in multiple election contests
in the court of law after after the
election and they were found to be false
by Court after court and then they she
kept saying them and uh she was using
them for for profit she using them to
prop up her campaign her future efforts
and so I just I I had hoped that it
would all blow over eventually and that
she would get on to other things and
then I realized sort of like I I guess
I'm the new hobby and I guess I'm the uh
the fundraising mechanism and so Bill
and I have and the other supervisors
have really tried just about every
mechanism Under the Sun and we often
feel at our wits end and so this was
just um you know not something I did
lightly we're all attorneys here we know
that litigation isn't Fun and so it was
just really that enough was enough and I
hope that this would put an end to the
defamatory statements yeah you got a
bunch of death threats didn't you
Stephen we all have and quite a few
people have been arrested in the context
of Maricopa County so one person was
arrested recently with respect to Bill
who was here in Phoenix I've had guys
arrested in Texas
Missouri San Diego we had another person
arrested recently in Alabama who
threatened one of our Frontline election
workers Clint Hickman who's a peer of
bills and other supervisors had somebody
from Iowa who was arrested and so I I
think that we are leading the league in
Maricopa County in terms of arrests
related to threats to election officials
and so some people think that n maybe
this is just Politics as Usual and
politicians lie and you know that that's
to be expected
um and and maybe there's a certain truth
to that but these lies get to the very
core of what American governance is and
they accuse us of really heinous crimes
and it doesn't take much imagination to
to think that when you broadcast this to
millions of people that one or two of
them or a handful of them are going to
take it upon themselves to to try and do
something really ugly because they truly
believe that maybe the country is being
stolen from from them and so we see the
downstream effects of these lies we see
the downstream effects of this hatred
this vitriol and it not only affects the
elected officials but as Bill can can
attest it affects a lot of our our
Frontline workers and bill and his
colleagues and I have invested a lot in
security measures and it's a darn shame
that the county is now probably bill
would have better number than this t i
but more than a million dollars in just
security stuff for election
Administration well well Bill Stephen is
suing Cary Lake for defamation because
she attacked him and you personally
talking trash about you both uh why
haven't you sued Carrie Lake why why is
it just Stephen doing it well I I you
know respect uh stephens's decision uh
for me uh you're right I mean we did
have a lot of the a lot of the
statements included both me and Stephen
and then sometimes other members of the
board of super visors but just for my
family at this point right now we've
decided not to pursue this um it look
it's a very personal decision Dave you
know whether to engage in litigation and
that's a decision that you know we've
made not to to not do that at this point
but uh you know it uh uh there's
certainly a lot of statements that have
been made a lot of death threats towards
the Board of Supervisors towards
individual election workers not only
Maricopa County but across the country
and it needs to stop and I salute those
like Stephen who are pushing back and
and to both of you what's the worst
things that Carrie Lake have said like
what what particular inflammatory
comments really push you guys over the
edge that caus you to get security to
protect your family bill I don't know if
I ever told you this well bill has I
think a particular comment that would
probably speak to that but I I once had
a Washington Post writer
call me the day after he went to one of
those rallies Cary Lake rally in early
2021 where she put our pictures up
behind her and she whipped up the crowd
and he called me and he said these
people are being stirred up like a mob
and it's not too far-fetched to think
that they might just grab the pitchforks
and head straight to your house because
she was using again the most sort of
aggressive rhetoric that we'd stolen we'
rigged it out from right underne it was
deliberate you know
Bill changed the tabulator setting such
that they wouldn't read my ballot Steven
injected 300,000 phony ballots into the
system and and of course you do this in
an environment at night in a tense
political environment um and just like
so much anger and he see I mean this is
a Washington Post reporter who
presumably knows his stuff and and for
him to say that to me was like wow I I
guess I won't be going to some of those
events anytime soon yeah bill but Bill
the one with your daughters probably is
sort of strikes me oh well this is yeah
this this doesn't have anything to do
with carry Lake but this was actually
after the 2020 election um as there was
still a lot of controversy here of
course we certified the election uh the
Board of Supervisors that did find that
Joe Biden got more votes
uh than Donald Trump in Maricopa County
and something that I've done over the
years is uh you know I like to go to
social media and love to post pictures
of the family I think it's important
that people get to know their elected
officials and know that they're you know
not a some faceless bureaucrat but
people members of the community who have
families and so in 20120 I had posted
our family Christmas card uh as we had
done many years in the past
unfortunately in 2020 uh there was so
much vitriol that was uh whipped up that
uh folks had gone on to my Instagram
account and suggested that our daughters
ought to be raped and so for me that
that that was the end uh and I have
definitely changed my strategy as it
relates to social media as a result I
think that's very sad but that is the
type of situation that we here in Maric
copi County and frankly elections
officials across the country have had to
deal with since 2020 do do you think
that Cary Lake really believes this
stuff or just using this for politics
because I happen to think you probably
had some relationship with her or people
around her because you guys are from the
same Republican party and then all of a
sudden she broke bad and decided to take
you on for for what reason sorry we're
from the same Republican party bill and
I have been Republicans for a long time
Carrie Lake was not a republican she was
not active in Republic quarters so some
of the people that you know for instance
Bill's been doing uh Republican party
operations in Arizona for what Bill like
20 years since 2002 yeah I've I've uh
started in the election day operations
Republican party so these are the folks
who who go out lawyers and other poll
observers to determine whether there is
fraud going on or just simply any uh
challenges in the polling places or vote
centers and so actually LED that
operation for the Arizona Republican
party in 2006 John Kyle's last election
and then of course 2008 when John McCain
was our Presidential nominee so I have a
lot of experience uh with this and uh
you know interestingly a lot of the
people who are involved now uh they're
new I'm all I'm all for new you know uh
folks getting involved in the political
process but to Stephen's Point there's a
lot of new faces uh who those of us who
been around for a long time had never
seen before say 2020 yeah so while I can
tell you stories about John Kyle or Jeff
Flake or John McCain or Doug Ducey um I
don't know as much about the people who
just sort of found republicanism in in
2019 or something like that or
2016 and while I like Bill certainly
welcomed them into the fold don't don't
come talking as if you know we haven't
been doing the the Yan's work for
conservative ISM for for many years
before that and don't act like you just
invented the Republican party or
conservatism and so no I actually don't
know much about Carrie or about whether
or not she really believes it I would
say I I don't know which is worse quite
frankly uh sometimes I'm more offended
and Bill and I have had this
conversation by the people who who know
it's false and yet still perpetuate it
but uh in my defamation claim you know
it doesn't matter cuz she has had
multiple court cases tell her that this
was wrong so she either should know or
she is sort of recklessly avoiding the
truth and and Dave I I want to say
something and people might be surprised
to hear this I have no personal animus
towards Cary Lake to Stephen's point I
haven't had a lot of interactions with
her over the years uh my job is very
simple I'm a member of the Board of
Supervisors we're in 50 lines of
business and one of the lines of
business that we're in which has of
course gotten a lot of attention is
working alongside Steven and his team to
run the elections and certifying the
elections and in the end that's what I'm
going to do and I'm going to continue
like Stephen to say the truth and push
back when people are pedling
disinformation yeah well I applaud you
guys because it takes a lot of guts
because these folks out there are angry
they are potentially violent they have
been violent and I think Stephen you
make a good point a lot of these folks
are new Republicans they're the Maga
Republicans they don't believe in the
same uh principles you do of free trade
and limited government and uh let's get
tough on Russia it's like the opposite
for these folks but here we are um so uh
Stephen your lawsuit seems to be doing
pretty well because the Arizona Supreme
Court just recently ruled in your favor
they rejected Carrie Lake's motion to
dismiss and finally on appeal that means
it's on right so the next step is
Discovery so you get to get all of her
little hidden recordings because she's
always recording people and you get to
depose her is that are you doing that
next you're going to put under oath yeah
so Dave you know that for a defamation
action really surviving a motion to
dismiss is very meaningful because then
it becomes it sort of flips the balance
of powers and then the you know it
becomes much more challenging for a
defendant and so that was a very
important step and that's because we
have a strong case and we've long felt
that we have a strong case and so we won
at the trial court level and then the
court of appeals and the Arizona Supreme
Court declined to review that so the
trial court ruling stands on the denials
of emotion to dismiss and now we go to
Discovery now for somebody who says that
she has evidence of all this it's a
little bit peculiar that she has
consistently filed motions to stay
Discovery pending appeal but now those
motions to stay are dissolved and so we
will be pushing for an aggressive very
thorough but professional Discovery
process and we will be asking for all
types of materials relating to her
alleged her Al ations and to any money
she's made off of it and that can
include of course text messages emails
but it can also include yes document or
recordings that uh she apparently makes
with in some of her
conversations yeah and has it happens to
be happening during the final stretch of
her attempted election to the US Senate
so that's not good for her I'm surprised
she's not trying to settle this well
that that didn't factor
into my decision to Su so when I sued uh
she was she was she had lost her
gubernatorial race and it had been a few
months since then she was not running
for the US Senate and she hardly
consulted me on what her future
political Ambitions were but um you know
so so so some of these people would say
well you sued her but she's running for
US Senate and she's a Republican and
don't you want Republicans to control
the United States Senate yes I want
Republicans to control the United States
Senate no I was not going to withhold on
exercising my legal rights just under
the possibility that she might run for
us sen and she might win the primary now
is it is it bad for her I you know I I I
don't know what sort of goes into the
calculation um I I know I like where we
stand and that's about all I can sort of
say yeah well do you guys um ever watch
Seinfeld I mean are you Seinfeld fans
yes and my video with on this issue I I
likened these Maga folks who keep trying
to hide the ball like there's this group
called true the vote in Georgia and they
claimed election fraud and then they
were sued and finally they had to admit
through discovery that no actually they
don't have any evidence there is no real
person who said that their vote was
stolen uh it was all a ruse well this
like uh like castanza George castanza
pretending that he has a house in the
Hamptons and he kept taking these people
further and further along hoping they
would just turn back but then in the end
he had to finally break down and admit
there is no house it was all a fake well
that's what this is right at point I
think Carrie Lake's gonna have to admit
there is no fraud it was a fake and then
Steph richer when you win this lawsuit
which I think you will I can't say with
certainty but when you I think you will
I think Stephen richer will become
richer is that a pun that you hear a lot
I I've heard it once or twice you might
imagine that throughout the course of my
life that's not the first time I've
heard that which is to say nothing about
your creativity now days I know you're I
know you and Bill are very well educated
people and uh and um you know but yes I
have heard that one before I've got a
guy named Richard and I got Bill Gates
with me I mean this is really cool huh
this is Big Money big money show Big
Money show well let me finish by asking
you one question I put you on the spot
let's start with you Bill Gates who's
gonna win the US Senate race between
Cary Lake and Ruben GGO the Democrat and
who are you voting for well I I am an
elections official now as as I said so
one ever since I moved into this role I
don't comment on who I vote for just my
decision uh so I I won't be commenting
on that and I don't prognosticate on
this we want to talk about March Madness
something else I'd be happy to do that
but uh it will be a I anticipate go out
on a limb here anticipate we're GNA have
a lot of very close elections in
Maricopa County in 2024 Wow way to go on
a limb there Bill Gates that was a
strong statement
therey Stephen you got something better
that yeah I I I I guess the one that for
me is I
think important for more and more
Republicans is I just think that
President Trump has crossed too many
lines and I'm pleased that yesterday
vice president Pence said that he's
crossed too many lines for him to
endorse president Trump for the
candidacy and for me um January 6th the
documents the the sexual assault the
continued lies about our election
system I think that these are things
that in 10 years ago we would have all
said those those are deal breakers this
is a no du situation and I think that we
have gotten into this sort of weird
mental warp where we
have apologized excused those things and
we have elevated what we perceive to be
the threats of the left to a level where
it excuses um some behavior on our side
but I I I don't believe that is
appropriate um I don't like a lot of the
stuff that the left is pushing I want a
republican uh president
but if you can't say no here then is it
just that you will never say no to the
Republican nominee for president and I
don't believe that makes you a an
American first and that's what I think
is important so Stephen I I respect that
greatly are you going to follow Mike
Pence's lead then and say that you will
not be supporting Donald Trump but will
you go any further do either of you guys
Bill are you going to say the same thing
are are you officially not supporting
Donald Trump for his re-election no like
I said that's that's not I'm not taking
any positions on any races uh that are
going to be on the ballot in marope
county in 2024 yeah all right and I said
re-election but you know what I mean
yeah Ste Stephen go ahead yeah David it
might surprise you but he hasn't asked
for my endorsement and I'm not going to
be um calling him up and uh and and
teeing it up well uh major respect I'm
not going to push you to endorse Joe
Biden because I know that it violates
your oath as Republicans but I'll I'll
ask you this which way will Arizona go
this is the final question it will it be
red or blue when it comes to the
presidential race in November because
Arizona is a crucial swing state so
which way you're going to go I don't
have any special Insight I that that's
disappointing I mean I know that I I I
think everyone's right to say we're one
of um five states i i i there is a
palatable
dissatisfaction palpable disatisfaction
with the Border uh in Arizona and I I
just I think for a lot of people that's
like a third or fourth issue um but I
think that President Biden As Told to
him by Senator Kelly As Told to him by
Governor Hobbs As Told to him by Senator
Cinema uh is is facing some real
liabilities with with the Border here in
Arizona and then we've also been
particularly uh hit by inflation here in
Arizona it's it's become a you know
Arizona still is an affordable State
visa California but home prices have
gone up uh food prices have gone up more
so here in Arizona than in many places
in the United States stes and so while
President Biden narrowly won Arizona in
2020 I I I don't think I think it's a
probably a coin flip do you agree bill
yeah I I agree and the amount of
attention that Arizona is getting you
know we've we've got presidential
candidates coming here they're going to
be here uh often uh we have our
presidential preference election uh on
Tuesday uh even though you know it's
it's locked up on both sides we will
continue to get a lot of attention the
amount of money that's going to be spent
on campaign advertising is
mindboggling and I think people are just
going to start turning their TVs off
let's say until uh the end of November
so close uh and Maricopa County itself
is so close within a state that is so
close and I do like to look you know I
Stephen knows I'm an optimist and and I
want to leave with an optimistic thought
which is you know our levels of
participation voter participation are up
so that is a good thing that has come
out and I don't think that's going to
change at all I think we will again see
record levels of participation but uh
that's not me being Koy here I don't
know who is going to win this is going
to be extremely close I I I know I said
that was the last question I have to
push back on on one thing Stephen you
were talking about the border and I
recognize that is a really important
issue but Biden and the Republicans in
the Senate uh James Lang for had a
really good strong border Bill and
Donald Trump killed it in the house does
that not resonate with voters
um perception can become reality it's
much to my disappointment uh I I I would
say that the last three years have felt
like the Border has not been addressed I
think that Republicans here would say
that the amount of Staffing the amount
of money then even the number of Border
visits that President Biden has has had
um all leave something to be desired now
I think that Democrats could push back
that hey it it's your nominee who called
up you know U senators and said
Republican Senators and said you know
kill this and for for maybe political
reasons but um you know generally
speaking it's the the the the party
that's in power that will own the issue
whether fairly or not and all I would
say is that the border is not perceived
as a great situation right now in
Arizona and President Biden is the
president and so I think that that's an
easy if not perfect line to draw for
many erors on it all right we're going
to have to leave it at that I really
appreciate you guys you know I go by the
uh the name Florida law man that's my
AKA and I gave myself the name I guess
as they say it on Seinfeld you can't
call yourself T-Bone but I called myself
Florida law man but today
it was Arizona day with two stars in
Arizona politics I salute you both for
your courage in battling the Extremes in
your party uh so thank you for being
with us on the mest touch Network
Stephen richer Bill Gates appreciate it
guys thanks Dave thanks sir love this
video make sure you stay up toate on the
latest breaking news and all things
midest by signing up to the midest touch
newsletter at midest touch.com
newsletter
MeidasTouch
Mar 17, 2024
Palm Beach State Prosecutor Dave Aronberg chats with Arizona election officials Stephen Richer and Bill Gates about MAGA election lies in the wake of the 2020 election.
Transcript
hello I'm Dave aronberg with the midest
touch Network we have a real treat today
we're here with two guys who have taken
it to carrye Lake this is supervisor
Bill Gates who is an old friend of mine
from law school and none other than
Stephen richer the recorder in Arizona
the one who is suing Cary Lake for
defamation after she defamed him with
the whole election nonsense and both
these guys are Republicans but they're
like Republican classic you know they
are uh they're old school Republicans
who actually uh believe in elections and
the rule of law and uh so uh kudos to
them on this pro-democracy network
welcome Stephen Richard and Bill
Gates thanks for having us thanks St
appreciate it yeah collector's edition
Republicans exactly and uh if you're
wondering no it's not that Bill Gates uh
this is uh this is the Bill Gates who
help save our democracy he's probably
not worth as much as the other Bill
Gates but he has meant a lot to our
country uh bill it's good to see you
again and um let's get right into it
because Stephen you were the recorder or
you are the recorder in Maricopa County
that's like the largest county in
Arizona bill is the supervisor there so
he's like a county commissioner and both
you guys stood by your election results
so Stephen tell us when was it when you
first learned that KY Lake had gone off
the deep end was ATT attacking you
personally for trying to supposedly
steal the election for Joe
Biden well GE this has been going on for
a few years now and so both the recorder
which is a countywide position and the
five member Board of Supervisors have
election related responsibilities in
Maricopa County and that's true of the
other 14 Counties in Arizona but really
it's been this way in Maricopa County
since 2021 really since the aftermath of
2020 and I joined the team in 2021 But
Bill's been going through this now for
consecutive Cycles but following the
2022 election we heard more allegations
of stolen elections and they got very
specific and there so one of the things
that really struck me and makes this
sort of a unique situation and was right
for a defamation action was that the
claims were very specific that they were
easily falsifiable that they were
presented in multiple election contests
in the court of law after after the
election and they were found to be false
by Court after court and then they she
kept saying them and uh she was using
them for for profit she using them to
prop up her campaign her future efforts
and so I just I I had hoped that it
would all blow over eventually and that
she would get on to other things and
then I realized sort of like I I guess
I'm the new hobby and I guess I'm the uh
the fundraising mechanism and so Bill
and I have and the other supervisors
have really tried just about every
mechanism Under the Sun and we often
feel at our wits end and so this was
just um you know not something I did
lightly we're all attorneys here we know
that litigation isn't Fun and so it was
just really that enough was enough and I
hope that this would put an end to the
defamatory statements yeah you got a
bunch of death threats didn't you
Stephen we all have and quite a few
people have been arrested in the context
of Maricopa County so one person was
arrested recently with respect to Bill
who was here in Phoenix I've had guys
arrested in Texas
Missouri San Diego we had another person
arrested recently in Alabama who
threatened one of our Frontline election
workers Clint Hickman who's a peer of
bills and other supervisors had somebody
from Iowa who was arrested and so I I
think that we are leading the league in
Maricopa County in terms of arrests
related to threats to election officials
and so some people think that n maybe
this is just Politics as Usual and
politicians lie and you know that that's
to be expected
um and and maybe there's a certain truth
to that but these lies get to the very
core of what American governance is and
they accuse us of really heinous crimes
and it doesn't take much imagination to
to think that when you broadcast this to
millions of people that one or two of
them or a handful of them are going to
take it upon themselves to to try and do
something really ugly because they truly
believe that maybe the country is being
stolen from from them and so we see the
downstream effects of these lies we see
the downstream effects of this hatred
this vitriol and it not only affects the
elected officials but as Bill can can
attest it affects a lot of our our
Frontline workers and bill and his
colleagues and I have invested a lot in
security measures and it's a darn shame
that the county is now probably bill
would have better number than this t i
but more than a million dollars in just
security stuff for election
Administration well well Bill Stephen is
suing Cary Lake for defamation because
she attacked him and you personally
talking trash about you both uh why
haven't you sued Carrie Lake why why is
it just Stephen doing it well I I you
know respect uh stephens's decision uh
for me uh you're right I mean we did
have a lot of the a lot of the
statements included both me and Stephen
and then sometimes other members of the
board of super visors but just for my
family at this point right now we've
decided not to pursue this um it look
it's a very personal decision Dave you
know whether to engage in litigation and
that's a decision that you know we've
made not to to not do that at this point
but uh you know it uh uh there's
certainly a lot of statements that have
been made a lot of death threats towards
the Board of Supervisors towards
individual election workers not only
Maricopa County but across the country
and it needs to stop and I salute those
like Stephen who are pushing back and
and to both of you what's the worst
things that Carrie Lake have said like
what what particular inflammatory
comments really push you guys over the
edge that caus you to get security to
protect your family bill I don't know if
I ever told you this well bill has I
think a particular comment that would
probably speak to that but I I once had
a Washington Post writer
call me the day after he went to one of
those rallies Cary Lake rally in early
2021 where she put our pictures up
behind her and she whipped up the crowd
and he called me and he said these
people are being stirred up like a mob
and it's not too far-fetched to think
that they might just grab the pitchforks
and head straight to your house because
she was using again the most sort of
aggressive rhetoric that we'd stolen we'
rigged it out from right underne it was
deliberate you know
Bill changed the tabulator setting such
that they wouldn't read my ballot Steven
injected 300,000 phony ballots into the
system and and of course you do this in
an environment at night in a tense
political environment um and just like
so much anger and he see I mean this is
a Washington Post reporter who
presumably knows his stuff and and for
him to say that to me was like wow I I
guess I won't be going to some of those
events anytime soon yeah bill but Bill
the one with your daughters probably is
sort of strikes me oh well this is yeah
this this doesn't have anything to do
with carry Lake but this was actually
after the 2020 election um as there was
still a lot of controversy here of
course we certified the election uh the
Board of Supervisors that did find that
Joe Biden got more votes
uh than Donald Trump in Maricopa County
and something that I've done over the
years is uh you know I like to go to
social media and love to post pictures
of the family I think it's important
that people get to know their elected
officials and know that they're you know
not a some faceless bureaucrat but
people members of the community who have
families and so in 20120 I had posted
our family Christmas card uh as we had
done many years in the past
unfortunately in 2020 uh there was so
much vitriol that was uh whipped up that
uh folks had gone on to my Instagram
account and suggested that our daughters
ought to be raped and so for me that
that that was the end uh and I have
definitely changed my strategy as it
relates to social media as a result I
think that's very sad but that is the
type of situation that we here in Maric
copi County and frankly elections
officials across the country have had to
deal with since 2020 do do you think
that Cary Lake really believes this
stuff or just using this for politics
because I happen to think you probably
had some relationship with her or people
around her because you guys are from the
same Republican party and then all of a
sudden she broke bad and decided to take
you on for for what reason sorry we're
from the same Republican party bill and
I have been Republicans for a long time
Carrie Lake was not a republican she was
not active in Republic quarters so some
of the people that you know for instance
Bill's been doing uh Republican party
operations in Arizona for what Bill like
20 years since 2002 yeah I've I've uh
started in the election day operations
Republican party so these are the folks
who who go out lawyers and other poll
observers to determine whether there is
fraud going on or just simply any uh
challenges in the polling places or vote
centers and so actually LED that
operation for the Arizona Republican
party in 2006 John Kyle's last election
and then of course 2008 when John McCain
was our Presidential nominee so I have a
lot of experience uh with this and uh
you know interestingly a lot of the
people who are involved now uh they're
new I'm all I'm all for new you know uh
folks getting involved in the political
process but to Stephen's Point there's a
lot of new faces uh who those of us who
been around for a long time had never
seen before say 2020 yeah so while I can
tell you stories about John Kyle or Jeff
Flake or John McCain or Doug Ducey um I
don't know as much about the people who
just sort of found republicanism in in
2019 or something like that or
2016 and while I like Bill certainly
welcomed them into the fold don't don't
come talking as if you know we haven't
been doing the the Yan's work for
conservative ISM for for many years
before that and don't act like you just
invented the Republican party or
conservatism and so no I actually don't
know much about Carrie or about whether
or not she really believes it I would
say I I don't know which is worse quite
frankly uh sometimes I'm more offended
and Bill and I have had this
conversation by the people who who know
it's false and yet still perpetuate it
but uh in my defamation claim you know
it doesn't matter cuz she has had
multiple court cases tell her that this
was wrong so she either should know or
she is sort of recklessly avoiding the
truth and and Dave I I want to say
something and people might be surprised
to hear this I have no personal animus
towards Cary Lake to Stephen's point I
haven't had a lot of interactions with
her over the years uh my job is very
simple I'm a member of the Board of
Supervisors we're in 50 lines of
business and one of the lines of
business that we're in which has of
course gotten a lot of attention is
working alongside Steven and his team to
run the elections and certifying the
elections and in the end that's what I'm
going to do and I'm going to continue
like Stephen to say the truth and push
back when people are pedling
disinformation yeah well I applaud you
guys because it takes a lot of guts
because these folks out there are angry
they are potentially violent they have
been violent and I think Stephen you
make a good point a lot of these folks
are new Republicans they're the Maga
Republicans they don't believe in the
same uh principles you do of free trade
and limited government and uh let's get
tough on Russia it's like the opposite
for these folks but here we are um so uh
Stephen your lawsuit seems to be doing
pretty well because the Arizona Supreme
Court just recently ruled in your favor
they rejected Carrie Lake's motion to
dismiss and finally on appeal that means
it's on right so the next step is
Discovery so you get to get all of her
little hidden recordings because she's
always recording people and you get to
depose her is that are you doing that
next you're going to put under oath yeah
so Dave you know that for a defamation
action really surviving a motion to
dismiss is very meaningful because then
it becomes it sort of flips the balance
of powers and then the you know it
becomes much more challenging for a
defendant and so that was a very
important step and that's because we
have a strong case and we've long felt
that we have a strong case and so we won
at the trial court level and then the
court of appeals and the Arizona Supreme
Court declined to review that so the
trial court ruling stands on the denials
of emotion to dismiss and now we go to
Discovery now for somebody who says that
she has evidence of all this it's a
little bit peculiar that she has
consistently filed motions to stay
Discovery pending appeal but now those
motions to stay are dissolved and so we
will be pushing for an aggressive very
thorough but professional Discovery
process and we will be asking for all
types of materials relating to her
alleged her Al ations and to any money
she's made off of it and that can
include of course text messages emails
but it can also include yes document or
recordings that uh she apparently makes
with in some of her
conversations yeah and has it happens to
be happening during the final stretch of
her attempted election to the US Senate
so that's not good for her I'm surprised
she's not trying to settle this well
that that didn't factor
into my decision to Su so when I sued uh
she was she was she had lost her
gubernatorial race and it had been a few
months since then she was not running
for the US Senate and she hardly
consulted me on what her future
political Ambitions were but um you know
so so so some of these people would say
well you sued her but she's running for
US Senate and she's a Republican and
don't you want Republicans to control
the United States Senate yes I want
Republicans to control the United States
Senate no I was not going to withhold on
exercising my legal rights just under
the possibility that she might run for
us sen and she might win the primary now
is it is it bad for her I you know I I I
don't know what sort of goes into the
calculation um I I know I like where we
stand and that's about all I can sort of
say yeah well do you guys um ever watch
Seinfeld I mean are you Seinfeld fans
yes and my video with on this issue I I
likened these Maga folks who keep trying
to hide the ball like there's this group
called true the vote in Georgia and they
claimed election fraud and then they
were sued and finally they had to admit
through discovery that no actually they
don't have any evidence there is no real
person who said that their vote was
stolen uh it was all a ruse well this
like uh like castanza George castanza
pretending that he has a house in the
Hamptons and he kept taking these people
further and further along hoping they
would just turn back but then in the end
he had to finally break down and admit
there is no house it was all a fake well
that's what this is right at point I
think Carrie Lake's gonna have to admit
there is no fraud it was a fake and then
Steph richer when you win this lawsuit
which I think you will I can't say with
certainty but when you I think you will
I think Stephen richer will become
richer is that a pun that you hear a lot
I I've heard it once or twice you might
imagine that throughout the course of my
life that's not the first time I've
heard that which is to say nothing about
your creativity now days I know you're I
know you and Bill are very well educated
people and uh and um you know but yes I
have heard that one before I've got a
guy named Richard and I got Bill Gates
with me I mean this is really cool huh
this is Big Money big money show Big
Money show well let me finish by asking
you one question I put you on the spot
let's start with you Bill Gates who's
gonna win the US Senate race between
Cary Lake and Ruben GGO the Democrat and
who are you voting for well I I am an
elections official now as as I said so
one ever since I moved into this role I
don't comment on who I vote for just my
decision uh so I I won't be commenting
on that and I don't prognosticate on
this we want to talk about March Madness
something else I'd be happy to do that
but uh it will be a I anticipate go out
on a limb here anticipate we're GNA have
a lot of very close elections in
Maricopa County in 2024 Wow way to go on
a limb there Bill Gates that was a
strong statement
therey Stephen you got something better
that yeah I I I I guess the one that for
me is I
think important for more and more
Republicans is I just think that
President Trump has crossed too many
lines and I'm pleased that yesterday
vice president Pence said that he's
crossed too many lines for him to
endorse president Trump for the
candidacy and for me um January 6th the
documents the the sexual assault the
continued lies about our election
system I think that these are things
that in 10 years ago we would have all
said those those are deal breakers this
is a no du situation and I think that we
have gotten into this sort of weird
mental warp where we
have apologized excused those things and
we have elevated what we perceive to be
the threats of the left to a level where
it excuses um some behavior on our side
but I I I don't believe that is
appropriate um I don't like a lot of the
stuff that the left is pushing I want a
republican uh president
but if you can't say no here then is it
just that you will never say no to the
Republican nominee for president and I
don't believe that makes you a an
American first and that's what I think
is important so Stephen I I respect that
greatly are you going to follow Mike
Pence's lead then and say that you will
not be supporting Donald Trump but will
you go any further do either of you guys
Bill are you going to say the same thing
are are you officially not supporting
Donald Trump for his re-election no like
I said that's that's not I'm not taking
any positions on any races uh that are
going to be on the ballot in marope
county in 2024 yeah all right and I said
re-election but you know what I mean
yeah Ste Stephen go ahead yeah David it
might surprise you but he hasn't asked
for my endorsement and I'm not going to
be um calling him up and uh and and
teeing it up well uh major respect I'm
not going to push you to endorse Joe
Biden because I know that it violates
your oath as Republicans but I'll I'll
ask you this which way will Arizona go
this is the final question it will it be
red or blue when it comes to the
presidential race in November because
Arizona is a crucial swing state so
which way you're going to go I don't
have any special Insight I that that's
disappointing I mean I know that I I I
think everyone's right to say we're one
of um five states i i i there is a
palatable
dissatisfaction palpable disatisfaction
with the Border uh in Arizona and I I
just I think for a lot of people that's
like a third or fourth issue um but I
think that President Biden As Told to
him by Senator Kelly As Told to him by
Governor Hobbs As Told to him by Senator
Cinema uh is is facing some real
liabilities with with the Border here in
Arizona and then we've also been
particularly uh hit by inflation here in
Arizona it's it's become a you know
Arizona still is an affordable State
visa California but home prices have
gone up uh food prices have gone up more
so here in Arizona than in many places
in the United States stes and so while
President Biden narrowly won Arizona in
2020 I I I don't think I think it's a
probably a coin flip do you agree bill
yeah I I agree and the amount of
attention that Arizona is getting you
know we've we've got presidential
candidates coming here they're going to
be here uh often uh we have our
presidential preference election uh on
Tuesday uh even though you know it's
it's locked up on both sides we will
continue to get a lot of attention the
amount of money that's going to be spent
on campaign advertising is
mindboggling and I think people are just
going to start turning their TVs off
let's say until uh the end of November
so close uh and Maricopa County itself
is so close within a state that is so
close and I do like to look you know I
Stephen knows I'm an optimist and and I
want to leave with an optimistic thought
which is you know our levels of
participation voter participation are up
so that is a good thing that has come
out and I don't think that's going to
change at all I think we will again see
record levels of participation but uh
that's not me being Koy here I don't
know who is going to win this is going
to be extremely close I I I know I said
that was the last question I have to
push back on on one thing Stephen you
were talking about the border and I
recognize that is a really important
issue but Biden and the Republicans in
the Senate uh James Lang for had a
really good strong border Bill and
Donald Trump killed it in the house does
that not resonate with voters
um perception can become reality it's
much to my disappointment uh I I I would
say that the last three years have felt
like the Border has not been addressed I
think that Republicans here would say
that the amount of Staffing the amount
of money then even the number of Border
visits that President Biden has has had
um all leave something to be desired now
I think that Democrats could push back
that hey it it's your nominee who called
up you know U senators and said
Republican Senators and said you know
kill this and for for maybe political
reasons but um you know generally
speaking it's the the the the party
that's in power that will own the issue
whether fairly or not and all I would
say is that the border is not perceived
as a great situation right now in
Arizona and President Biden is the
president and so I think that that's an
easy if not perfect line to draw for
many erors on it all right we're going
to have to leave it at that I really
appreciate you guys you know I go by the
uh the name Florida law man that's my
AKA and I gave myself the name I guess
as they say it on Seinfeld you can't
call yourself T-Bone but I called myself
Florida law man but today
it was Arizona day with two stars in
Arizona politics I salute you both for
your courage in battling the Extremes in
your party uh so thank you for being
with us on the mest touch Network
Stephen richer Bill Gates appreciate it
guys thanks Dave thanks sir love this
video make sure you stay up toate on the
latest breaking news and all things
midest by signing up to the midest touch
newsletter at midest touch.com
newsletter
- admin
- Site Admin
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Re: Kari Lake Defames Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Rich
by admin » Thu Mar 28, 2024 3:16 am
Kari Lake SURRENDERS in Lawsuit, ADMITS TO LIES
by Ben Meiselas
MeidasTouch
Mar 27, 2024
MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on MAGA Republican Kari Lake requesting a default be entered against her in a defamation lawsuit filed against her by Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer.
Transcript
Maga Republican Carrie lake has
surrendered in the defamation lawsuit
filed against her by Stephen richer the
Maricopa County Recorder who's been on
the mightest touch Network before Carrie
lake is now admitting that she lied and
defamed Stephen richer and did so with
actual malice in connection with the
defamation lawsuit filed by richer
against krie l now Carrie Lake through
her lawyers has just filed a motion
asking the court to enter a default
judgment against her and for the court
to determine the extent and amount of
Richard's damages Carrie Lake did not
fight she concedes she defamed richer
and she is obviously afraid to have the
extent of her bad actions become public
as Barry markson put it when he wrote
about this breaking news wow and Steph
Richard responding to this as well take
a look at his response right here he
goes complete and total Surrender by
Carrie Lake on the issue of liability in
reference to the defamation lawsuit that
he had filed against Carrie Lake meaning
it was always all Bs and she just
entered that into court now we are on to
damages the great organization
pro-democracy Defenders by the name of
protect democracy who was representing
stepen richer in this case against Cary
Lake they wrote KY Lake capitulates in
defamation suit Victory she admits to
spreading lies about election official
stevenh richer Carrie Lake concedes
liability for unlawfully defaming richer
tacitly conceding she has no evidence to
support her dangerous lies about Mr
Richard's conduct during the 2022
election the only question now is how
much she must pay for the damage she has
done to our client step Richard
continued uh to celebrate this big
victory he wrote Never Surrender
referring to what Carrie Lake said lose
on motion to dismiss Never Surrender
that's what Carri Lake would say lose on
appeals a motion to dismiss face trial
Carrie Lake okay okay I I'll surrender
let's take a look at a video that we
published here at the mitus touch
Network back in August where Carrie Lake
implied that Steph richer who sued Lake
for defamation is evil and there's not a
damn thing you can do to me to make me
stop fighting this because the truth is
on our side we mentioned today Cary Lake
folded let's run this clip now they're
going after me and suing me for
defamation for talking about the
elections these people are so evil and I
I just want them to know if they're
listening and I'm sure they are there's
not a damn thing you could do to me to
make me stop fighting this because the
truth is on our side who won the
election who won
[Applause]
it step Richard continues to respond it
was a lie it was always a lie she did it
to get your
$25 referring to the magas who would
support her grift or to fire you up but
it was a lie there were no
300,000 fraudulent early ballots she
defamed me but she also lied to you
Stephen Richards also uh telling Capital
Media Services it's Now official she
accepts that all of this was a lie this
was one big grift here's the motion by
the way um and ABC 15 Arizona published
the law publish the lawsuit and they
published the request by Carrie Lake to
have default judgment be entered against
her conceding she did it and she lost
defendant Cary Lake Jeffrey Halburn Cary
Lake for Arizona and save Arizona fund
move the court to conduct a hearing
pursuant to Arizona rule of civil
procedure 55 subb sub2 D within 30 days
to include the impaneling of a jury as
needed to adjudicate factual disputes
defendants further request and Order
setting scheduling hearing within five
Court days to secure just speedy and
inexpensive determination of this matter
before the forthcoming primary and
general elections and so that's what it
was all about folks what Cary Lake
wanted to avoid by doing this
was Discovery was depositions was having
to testify about the facts about her
lies about her defamation she wants to
grift off of it and raise all of this
money but she does not want to step in a
courtroom under penalty of perjury and
have her be video recorded or have to
testify in a court of law regarding the
true facts here regarding the actual
truth by the way we had Stephen richer
on the midest touch network over this
past weekend he uh did an interview with
um my colleague David aronburg Florida
State prosecutor who also now runs True
Crime MTN our true crime channel here on
the midest touch Network it's it's one
of the fastest growing True Crime
networks on YouTube just search True
Crime MTN if you're interested in Aaron
BG's project over there it's great stuff
but this was part of aronburg
interview with um with uh Bill Gates who
sits on the Maricopa County Board and
with Steven Richard uh the Maricopa
County Recorder who was defamed by
Carrie Lake and who just prevailed on
the liability phase with Carrie Lake
tapping out let's play this part of our
interview play the clipy Stephen you got
something better than
that yeah I I I I guess the one that for
me is I think
important for more and more Republicans
is I just think that President Trump has
crossed too many lines and I'm pleased
that yesterday vice president Pence said
that he's crossed too many lines for him
to endorse president Trump for the
candidacy and for me um January 6 the
documents the the sexual assault the
continued lies about our election
system I think that these are things
that in 10 years ago we would have all
said those those are deal breakers this
is a no duh situation and I think that
we have gotten into this sort of weird
mental warp where we
have apologized excused those things and
we have elevated what we perceive to be
the threats of the left to a level where
it excuses
um some behavior on our side but I I I
don't believe that is appropriate um I
don't like a lot of the stuff that the
left is pushing I want a republican uh
president
but if you can't say no here then is it
just that you will never say no to the
Republican nominee for president and I
don't believe that makes you a an
American first and that's what I think
is important no and of course you have
Carrie Lake uh you know who would go to
all of the Trump events and uh she would
um vacuum uh before Donald Trump's feet
and make sure he didn't step on any dirt
you had Carrie Lake of course who ran
for governor was still whining about the
results of the 2020 election still
whining about the results of the 2022
election she lost in in uh her race
because let's face it she's she's
extreme I mean the the
Maga extreme ISM the weird Trump cult
Behavior you know the way she spends
days and days and weeks and huge amounts
of times at maral Lago it's just frankly
very pathetic it's frankly very very
weird um but a big loss for Cary Lake
that we can report here on the Midas
touch Network admitting to defaming
Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richard
moves on to the damages fade total
surrender total capitulation a big loss
for Carrie Lake and just goes to show
you all this Mega nonsense it's why our
court system so important well hit
subscribe we're on our way to 3 million
subscribers thanks to your support thank
you so much for watching and have a
wonderful day
by Ben Meiselas
MeidasTouch
Mar 27, 2024
MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on MAGA Republican Kari Lake requesting a default be entered against her in a defamation lawsuit filed against her by Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer.
Transcript
Maga Republican Carrie lake has
surrendered in the defamation lawsuit
filed against her by Stephen richer the
Maricopa County Recorder who's been on
the mightest touch Network before Carrie
lake is now admitting that she lied and
defamed Stephen richer and did so with
actual malice in connection with the
defamation lawsuit filed by richer
against krie l now Carrie Lake through
her lawyers has just filed a motion
asking the court to enter a default
judgment against her and for the court
to determine the extent and amount of
Richard's damages Carrie Lake did not
fight she concedes she defamed richer
and she is obviously afraid to have the
extent of her bad actions become public
as Barry markson put it when he wrote
about this breaking news wow and Steph
Richard responding to this as well take
a look at his response right here he
goes complete and total Surrender by
Carrie Lake on the issue of liability in
reference to the defamation lawsuit that
he had filed against Carrie Lake meaning
it was always all Bs and she just
entered that into court now we are on to
damages the great organization
pro-democracy Defenders by the name of
protect democracy who was representing
stepen richer in this case against Cary
Lake they wrote KY Lake capitulates in
defamation suit Victory she admits to
spreading lies about election official
stevenh richer Carrie Lake concedes
liability for unlawfully defaming richer
tacitly conceding she has no evidence to
support her dangerous lies about Mr
Richard's conduct during the 2022
election the only question now is how
much she must pay for the damage she has
done to our client step Richard
continued uh to celebrate this big
victory he wrote Never Surrender
referring to what Carrie Lake said lose
on motion to dismiss Never Surrender
that's what Carri Lake would say lose on
appeals a motion to dismiss face trial
Carrie Lake okay okay I I'll surrender
let's take a look at a video that we
published here at the mitus touch
Network back in August where Carrie Lake
implied that Steph richer who sued Lake
for defamation is evil and there's not a
damn thing you can do to me to make me
stop fighting this because the truth is
on our side we mentioned today Cary Lake
folded let's run this clip now they're
going after me and suing me for
defamation for talking about the
elections these people are so evil and I
I just want them to know if they're
listening and I'm sure they are there's
not a damn thing you could do to me to
make me stop fighting this because the
truth is on our side who won the
election who won
[Applause]
it step Richard continues to respond it
was a lie it was always a lie she did it
to get your
$25 referring to the magas who would
support her grift or to fire you up but
it was a lie there were no
300,000 fraudulent early ballots she
defamed me but she also lied to you
Stephen Richards also uh telling Capital
Media Services it's Now official she
accepts that all of this was a lie this
was one big grift here's the motion by
the way um and ABC 15 Arizona published
the law publish the lawsuit and they
published the request by Carrie Lake to
have default judgment be entered against
her conceding she did it and she lost
defendant Cary Lake Jeffrey Halburn Cary
Lake for Arizona and save Arizona fund
move the court to conduct a hearing
pursuant to Arizona rule of civil
procedure 55 subb sub2 D within 30 days
to include the impaneling of a jury as
needed to adjudicate factual disputes
defendants further request and Order
setting scheduling hearing within five
Court days to secure just speedy and
inexpensive determination of this matter
before the forthcoming primary and
general elections and so that's what it
was all about folks what Cary Lake
wanted to avoid by doing this
was Discovery was depositions was having
to testify about the facts about her
lies about her defamation she wants to
grift off of it and raise all of this
money but she does not want to step in a
courtroom under penalty of perjury and
have her be video recorded or have to
testify in a court of law regarding the
true facts here regarding the actual
truth by the way we had Stephen richer
on the midest touch network over this
past weekend he uh did an interview with
um my colleague David aronburg Florida
State prosecutor who also now runs True
Crime MTN our true crime channel here on
the midest touch Network it's it's one
of the fastest growing True Crime
networks on YouTube just search True
Crime MTN if you're interested in Aaron
BG's project over there it's great stuff
but this was part of aronburg
interview with um with uh Bill Gates who
sits on the Maricopa County Board and
with Steven Richard uh the Maricopa
County Recorder who was defamed by
Carrie Lake and who just prevailed on
the liability phase with Carrie Lake
tapping out let's play this part of our
interview play the clipy Stephen you got
something better than
that yeah I I I I guess the one that for
me is I think
important for more and more Republicans
is I just think that President Trump has
crossed too many lines and I'm pleased
that yesterday vice president Pence said
that he's crossed too many lines for him
to endorse president Trump for the
candidacy and for me um January 6 the
documents the the sexual assault the
continued lies about our election
system I think that these are things
that in 10 years ago we would have all
said those those are deal breakers this
is a no duh situation and I think that
we have gotten into this sort of weird
mental warp where we
have apologized excused those things and
we have elevated what we perceive to be
the threats of the left to a level where
it excuses
um some behavior on our side but I I I
don't believe that is appropriate um I
don't like a lot of the stuff that the
left is pushing I want a republican uh
president
but if you can't say no here then is it
just that you will never say no to the
Republican nominee for president and I
don't believe that makes you a an
American first and that's what I think
is important no and of course you have
Carrie Lake uh you know who would go to
all of the Trump events and uh she would
um vacuum uh before Donald Trump's feet
and make sure he didn't step on any dirt
you had Carrie Lake of course who ran
for governor was still whining about the
results of the 2020 election still
whining about the results of the 2022
election she lost in in uh her race
because let's face it she's she's
extreme I mean the the
Maga extreme ISM the weird Trump cult
Behavior you know the way she spends
days and days and weeks and huge amounts
of times at maral Lago it's just frankly
very pathetic it's frankly very very
weird um but a big loss for Cary Lake
that we can report here on the Midas
touch Network admitting to defaming
Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richard
moves on to the damages fade total
surrender total capitulation a big loss
for Carrie Lake and just goes to show
you all this Mega nonsense it's why our
court system so important well hit
subscribe we're on our way to 3 million
subscribers thanks to your support thank
you so much for watching and have a
wonderful day
- admin
- Site Admin
- Posts: 36180
- Joined: Thu Aug 01, 2013 5:21 am
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