Kari Lake's specious speech may soon make Stephen Richer richer-er

Kari Lake spouted unproven claims of misconduct and election tampering against Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer in order to grift off gullible MAGA suckers, without seeming to care, at all, about the potential harm she was doing to Richer’s reputation and the potential physical harm that could have resulted from enflaming the emotions of those same gullible dupes.

So, Richer sued her for defamation.

Lake tried to get the suit dismissed. She failed. The Arizona Supreme Court says it can go forward.

When the news broke, Richer posted on X, formerly Twitter:

“Words matter. Anyone who followed any of the court cases, anyone who paid any attention to the news, anyone who knew even a smidge about how elections work, should have known these HIGHLY SPECIFIC, easily falsifiable, claims were, in fact, false.

“And those false claims — broadcast to millions of people, often while seeking donations — had, no surprise, a very material impact on me and mine.”

Lake repeated unsubstantiated claims

It’s important to recall what happened, and how much damage the false allegations of election fraud have caused to the system and to the people who work within it.

In his lawsuit, Richer’s attorneys outline instances in which they say Lake not only spouted false allegations about election rigging against Richer (and Maricopa County supervisors) but continued to spread them even after courts “found ‘nothing’ to substantiate” Lake’s claims of intentional misconduct and said her accusations were “quite simply, sheer speculation.”

The lawsuit contains many instances in which Lake repeats the accusations, stating them as fact, as when she’s quoted saying, “Richer and (Maricopa County Supervisor Bill) Gates … printed a 19-inch 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. They didn’t want us to notice it.”

Lake wants an open border: Until after the election

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.

Richer received death threats over them

In an essay for The Arizona Republic about his lawsuit and these accusations, Richer wrote:

“Both allegations are completely false.

“Not only would I obviously never do the things that she accuses me of, but also as a matter of Arizona law and election administration processes, I don’t even have responsibility for — or jurisdiction over — the printing of ballots on Election Day.

“Lake has continued to repeat these falsehoods, despite multiple court rulings that found her attacks to be unfounded.”

He said, “(Lake’s) words have provoked death threats from Lake’s followers. I’ve been forced to increase my personal and professional security while still watching over my shoulder.”

What happens next as the lawsuit moves forward is the discovery process, then a trial.

Unless there is a settlement.

For that to happen, Richer told ABC 15’s Garrett Archer, it would require from Lake a “sorry, I lied” and a number.

A pretty big number, I’d guess.

Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Kari Lake's specious speech should make Stephen Richer richer-er