Kari Lake Election Trial Marred With Embarrassing Mishaps

Former Republican Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake's election trial was filled with some mishaps on Wednesday as she continues to claim that the 2022 election in the state was stolen from her.

One video shared on social media shows an awkward interaction between Lake's lawyer Bryan Blehm and Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson as the two discuss a voicemail recording and if it was disclosed to the court prior. During the discussion, the judge tells Blehm that he was informed the recording was not uploaded to the court and the defendants can be heard saying that they have not heard the recording either.

"The judge asks if the voicemail has been disclosed or authenticated. Defendants' attorneys say it has not. Lake's attorney, Bryan Blehm, is confident it was disclosed, but can't find the document proving so because this 'last week has been like four months,'" the Democracy Docket wrote in a series of tweets regarding the trial. "Court officials confirm that Lake's attorney did not upload the voicemail recording to the court as evidence. Defendants further state that there's no record of anyone named "Betty" who works for Maricopa County's election department."

Lake filed a lawsuit following the results of the Arizona gubernatorial election, where she was defeated by Democrat Katie Hobbs by more than 17,000 votes, the Associated Press reported.

On Monday, Thompson dismissed a majority of Lake's claims but allowed two portions of her lawsuit to proceed in court. One count involves allegations related to issues with the ballot printers, which Lake says led to votes not being tabulated correctly, while the other count involves Lake's accusation that the chain of custody for ballots was violated.

Another video shared on social media shows a discussion between Maricopa County Attorney Tom Liddy and one of Lake's witnesses Clay Parikh, where the latter claimed that dozens of ballots were printed in the wrong size. However, Parikh later said that if the ballots are "duplicated correctly and they're configured correctly," they would be counted.

At another point during the trial, there was confusion among Lake's team in regard to a specific witness they wanted to call to the stand. The defendant's legal team can be heard saying that the specific witness was taken off a list to appear during the trial.

Neama Rahmani, former federal prosecutor and the president of West Coast Trial Lawyers, told Newsweek on Wednesday that "Lake's lawsuit was frivolous on its face, and I'm surprised the judge didn't dismiss it entirely when he dismissed 8 of the 10 claims."

"With respect to the remaining claims, Lake didn't present any evidence that Maricopa County employees intentionally interfered with election day printers, nor that they violated the ballot chain of custody," Rahmani told Newsweek, adding that Lake's team will need to provide more conclusive evidence of "intentional wrongdoing" to overturn the results.

Carole Lieberman, forensic psychiatrist and trial expert witness, told Newsweek that "The judge has given Kari Lake a high bar to reach - having to prove that any errors in the voting were done on purpose, not just by accident."

"Nonetheless, I wouldn't count Kari Lake out yet. She has vowed to take the case to the Supreme Court," Lieberman added.

Attorney Andrew Lieb told Newsweek that Lake's team has yet to show any evidence of intentional misconduct and said, "proving intent is going to be nearly impossible without a smoking gun and if she had one, we would have heard it already."

Newsweek has reached out to Lake's team for comment.