Kari Lake is now trying to take the Arizona Republican Party down with her

| 7:00 pm EDT May 27, 2023
Dear Palmer Report readers, we all understand the difficult era we're heading into. Major media outlets are caving to Trump already. Even the internet itself and publishing platforms may be at risk. But Palmer Report is nonetheless going to lead the fight. We're funding our 2025 operating expenses now, so we can keep publishing no matter what happens. I'm asking you to contribute if you can, because the stakes are just so high. You can donate here.

Election denier and conspiracy theorist Kari Lake is somehow devising new ways to circle the drain. Each new pratfall is a predictable backfiring, serving only to remind us that Lake deserved to lose the Arizona gubernatorial election in November. Apparently, Lake will stop at nothing to continue her humiliating campaign, taking her attorneys and her state’s Republican Party down with her.

This week, an Arizona judge dismissed the final claim of Lake’s lawsuit challenging the election that resulted in her opponent, Democrat Katie Hobbs becoming governor. Lake attempted to argue that Maricopa County did not verify signatures on mail ballots as the law requires. Judge Peter A. Thompson, who was appointed by former Republican Gov. Jan Brewer, threw out Lake’s trash after a three-day trial.

This latest challenge was Lake’s last legal claim in a half-year effort to overturn the November election results. Not surprisingly, she’s now reduced to futile chest-thumping. In a news conference on Tuesday, Lake threatened, “We’re also going to continue to not only raise funds, but energy, for our legal team to continue pushing our case to the United States Supreme Court.” Yawn.

Lake’s courtroom desperation has also created a shameful pattern of sanctions for her attorneys. Following the latest drama, Maricopa County attorneys this week asked Judge Thompson to issue sanctions for their “heinous and profoundly harmful” claims about an election that they insisted was “rigged.”

A few weeks ago, the Arizona Supreme Court fined Lake’s attorneys $2,000 for making several “unequivocally false” statements in court. This new sanctions request seeks fines for additional false claims made after the old sanctions had been issued, according to a report from the Arizona Republic.

Back in December, a federal judge ordered sanctions against the attorneys for Lake as well as for former Republican candidate for Arizona Secretary of State Mark Finchem after dismissing their preemptive lawsuit that tried to bar the use of electronic devices to cast or count votes. Judge John Tuchi slammed Lake’s and Finchem’s teams for trying to “undermine public trust at a time of increasing disinformation about, and distrust in, the democratic process,” according to an earlier Arizona Republic report.

On top of the continuous losing and sanctions, Lake confronted Arizona Republican Party chair Jeff DeWit in a restaurant before this week’s unfavorable ruling, reportedly pressing him to offer public support for her legal struggle. After DeWit played dumb, Lake “ripped Jeff a new one,” according to an account by observers. This led DeWit to capitulate and promptly tweet about how Lake is “uncovering so much and standing strong in the courts.” In every way, Lake is continuing to prove herself to be a toxic, pitiful loser.

Dear Palmer Report readers, we all understand the difficult era we're heading into. Major media outlets are caving to Trump already. Even the internet itself and publishing platforms may be at risk. But Palmer Report is nonetheless going to lead the fight. We're funding our 2025 operating expenses now, so we can keep publishing no matter what happens. I'm asking you to contribute if you can, because the stakes are just so high. You can donate here.