Kari Lake Lawyers Sanctioned by Judge Over 'Frivolous' Election Lawsuit

Kari Lake's lawyers have been sanctioned by a U.S. District Court judge following their lawsuit regarding the midterm election.

In April, Republicans Kari Lake and Mark Finchem, former President Donald Trump-endorsed candidates running for Arizona governor and secretary of state respectively, filed a lawsuit requesting Maricopa and Pima counties use only paper ballots during the November midterm election.

Maricopa County is the most populous Arizona county, followed by Pima County.

According to an article by the Arizona Republic, Judge John Tuchi had already dismissed the lawsuit, which he referred to as a "frivolous complaint," but took further action when Maricopa County requested sanctions be imposed on the lawyers who filed the lawsuit.

Months after Lake and Finchem filed their lawsuit, Maricopa County tabulation machines malfunctioned on Election Day. Many of the machines weren't counting submitted ballots.

Maricopa County election officials declared the ballots would be counted later and that all ballots would be counted, but Lake expressed outrage at the decision.

She called for election reform and requested only paper ballots be used in future elections, arguing that delayed ballot counting leads to more time for election fraud to occur.

After the several days it took for officials to count the ballots and finalize the vote, Lake and Finchem both lost their election bids.

Now, their lawyers also lost standing with a Phoenix judge and will be required to pay the court fees incurred since the lawsuit was filed in April.

Tuchi criticized Lake, Finchem and their lawyers for their "baseless" actions.

"It is to make clear that the Court will not condone litigants ignoring the steps that Arizona has already taken toward [elections] and furthering false narratives that baselessly undermine public trust at a time of increasing disinformation about, and distrust in, the democratic process," Tuchi said in the report, according to Phoenix's KPHO CBS 5 News.

"It is to send a message to those who might file similarly baseless suits in the future," the judge added.

Bill Gates, chair of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, said that such sanctions are rarely imposed and called the ruling a "win for the rule of law" in a statement the county published on its Twitter page on Thursday.

"Unfortunately, we've seen too many examples in recent years of attorneys trying to weaponize the court for political purposes, in particular, to undermine free and fair elections," Gates said in his statement. "It is wrong, it is unethical, and these attorneys must be held accountable if we are to protect our democratic republic."

Lake immediately responded to the Twitter statement with a tweet of her own, telling Gates "We the People" remember what happened with the tabulation machines on Election Day.

"Five months ago, I 'questioned' the use of your machines, Bill. Do you remember what happened on Election Day? We The People remember," Lake tweeted.

The rare sanction order "reads like the judge wants to deter not bad faith cases but electoral challenges," according to a statement from Lake's campaign sent to Newsweek.

"Punishing counsel is a serious effort to impune the professional reputation of counsel. This could lead to a bar complaint. Doing this deters other lawyers from ever agreeing to help conservatives. We saw this in real time in 2020 with numerous Trump lawyers," the statement said.

"All in all this reads like an angry Obama appointee who wants to send a message. The message is if you lose shut up and don't come to court," the statement added. "The message is not that you lost a case or acted in bad faith."

Lake also has filed a lawsuit seeking access to election records from Maricopa County.

Newsweek reached out to Finchem's campaign for comment.