(Mark Pellin, Headline USA) Arizona’s alleged Democrat Gov.-elect Katie Hobbs was dealt a rebuke when the judge who last week ruled against an elections challenge lawsuit filed by Republican Kari Lake refused to order sanctions against Lake and her legal team.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson on Tuesday denied sanctions totaling upwards of $700,000 being sought by Hobbs, ruling that fines and sanctions weren’t justified.
Thompson had previously rejected Lake’s claims that widespread ballot-tabulating and voting-machine failures on Election Day had resulted from intentional misconduct and impacted results. The court on Tuesday ruled that Lake’s failure to prove her case doesn’t “equate to a finding that her claims were, or were not, groundless and presented in bad faith.”
“There is no doubt that each side believes firmly in its position with great conviction,” Thompson wrote.
“The fact that Plaintiff failed to meet the burden of clear and convincing evidence required … does not equate to a finding that her claims were, or were not, groundless and presented in bad faith. Any legal decision must be based on the law and facts rather than subjective beliefs or partisan opinions, no matter how strongly held.”
Thompson did order Lake to pay about $33,000 to cover costs for retaining expert witnesses during the two-day trail last week.
Left out of the mix was the bulk of sanctions being sought by Hobbs, which had included a big payday for Democrat attorney and bagman Marc Elias. The Steele dossier conspirator represented Hobbs during the elections litigation in her dual capacity as Arizona’s incumbent secretary of state, who oversaw the state’s grossly flawed midterm, and as Democrat candidate for governor.
Hobbs allegedly won the midterm by about 17,000 votes. Multiple voter-machine malfunctions and tabulator errors disenfranchised tens of thousands of voters from majority-Republican precincts, Lake argued in her elections challenge.
We have filed our appeal.
And we would VERY much like to talk about the issue of signature verification (or the complete and total lack thereof in Maricopa County) before the court.
— Kari Lake War Room (@KariLakeWarRoom) December 28, 2022
“We’re going to appeal this,” Lake reiterated Tuesday on Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast. “We think we have absolute merit with this lawsuit, and we’re going to appeal it and take it even higher.”
Hobbs is slated to be sworn as Arizona’s governor Jan. 5 and Lake’s appeal, while a hearing date has not been set, is expected to be expedited.
.@KariLake: "I am standing up for the people of this state. The people who were done wrong on Election Day and the millions of people who live outside of Maricopa County, whose vote was watered down by this bogus election in Maricopa County." pic.twitter.com/sFHQCx9f9Y
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) December 27, 2022
