Kari Lake's attorneys fined for repeated 'unequivocally false' claims in Arizona election challenge
The Arizona Supreme Court on Thursday ordered sanctions against former gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake's lawyers for "unequivocally false" claims made in court about 35,000 ballots added to last year's election vote count.
Attorneys for Gov. Katie Hobbs and Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, both Democrats, sought sanctions against Lake for bringing what they called a frivolous and unfounded lawsuit.
The order signed by Chief Justice Robert Brutinel declined to award Hobbs and Fontes their attorneys fees and said Lake's lawyers must pay $2,000 to the court clerk for repeatedly claiming it was an "undisputed fact" that 35,563 ballots were added to the results at Maricopa County’s third-party ballot processor, Runbeck Election Services. Hobbs, Fontes and Maricopa County all disputed the claim.
Even after the Supreme Court itself said Lake did not show evidence to prove ballots were added, her attorneys Bryan Blehm and Kurt Olsen made the claim again in an April court filing.
"Sometimes campaigns and their attendant hyperbole spill over into legal challenges," the Arizona Supreme Court order reads. "But once a contest enters the judicial arena, rules of attorney ethics apply." Those rules build confidence in the judicial system, the court said, noting that sanctions can deter lawyers from making false statements in the future.
Olsen is a Washington, D.C.-based attorney who helped with a lawsuit challenging the 2020 election results that was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court.
https://www.azcentral.com/story/new...-with-sanctions-on-election-suit/70177506007/
lol. she's really pulling ahead.