Kari Lake
Kari Lake (Photo: Shutterstock)

Kari Lake is about to discover that spewing nonsense conspiracy theories comes at a cost.

Lake ran to be Governor of Arizona in 2022. She failed, losing to Democratic rival Katie Hobbs by approximately 87,000 votes. Despite this, Lake has consistently insisted the election was rigged. She has launched legal bids to overturn the result. To date, these have all failed due to her inability to come up with evidence.

Yesterday, Lake suffered another defeat. Or rather, her attorneys conceded she didn’t have a winnable case.

Lake was embroiled in a defamation case launched by an electoral worker: Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer.

Richer says Lake consistently lied about Richer’s actions as recorder. She claimed, with zero evidence, that he stuffed ballot boxes with 300,000 invalid votes during the 2022 count.

Richer says that as a result of Lake’s comments, he’s received death threats and harassment.

Yesterday, Lake’s attorneys moved to forfeit her defense in the case. They do not contest Richer’s claims. In short, they want the case to proceed to a decision on what level of damages would be appropriate for Richer.

Lake gives up trying to defend herself

Unsurprisingly, Richer took to X to celebrate this victory.

“Won’t defend / can’t defend,” he said, sharing news of the legal development. “I’ll get my due. But not the millions of people she lied to. Not the thousands of people who donated ‘to continue the fight.’ Not the people who have gone to jail because they so strongly believed Kari’s lies. Those people won’t get their due.”

How did Lake respond? Did she offer an apology?

She did not. Instead, she posted a video explaining why she refused to defend her comments. She suggested that to do so would lend “credibility” to Mr Richer and anyone else out to get her.

“Washington, D.C. operates on blackmail and bribes. Since they can’t blackmail or bribe me, they’ve resorted to filing a punishing lawsuit to try to stop me and bleed me dry,” she said in a video message.

“They’re threatening to take everything I own. What they don’t realize is even if they leave me, my husband and children homeless and penniless, that won’t stop us.

“By participating in this lawsuit, it would only serve to legitimize this perversion of our legal system and allow bad actors to interfere in our upcoming election,” she continued, straight-faced. “So I won’t be taking part.”

How big will the damages be?

She went on to compare herself to Donald Trump, saying both were “targets of the weaponized legal/court system called Lawfare. Our political opponents will stop at nothing to destroy us.”

She then took direct aim at Richer in a follow-up tweet (and although we’re not lawyers, we imagine that ain’t the smartest move while a decision is still to be made on damages).

“Maricopa County election Official @StephenRicher says I ‘surrendered.’ That’s a lie. I didn’t surrender, I simply cut-to-the-chase,” explained Lake.

“Stephen, how much money will you ask for at the damages hearing? Tell us. How many zeroes? The people of Arizona, who often work too hard for too little just to provide for their families, deserve to know. We deserve answers to all these questions. Will you answer them?”

We suspect Lake will discover the answer to her last question soon enough.

Online, some people seemed skeptical of Lake’s explanation.

“The truth is on our side”

As recently as last August, Lake suggested Richer was “evil”. She said she would not stop fighting “because the truth is on our side.”

Despite her legitimate loss in 2022, Lake is running again this year to replace outgoing, Independent Senator Kyrsten Sinema. She’s up against Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego, who has a slight lead in the polls.

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