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.
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.
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
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
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 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