Kari Lake Rages After Getting Sued by Republican Official: 'Jackass'

Kari Lake, the defeated Republican candidate who lost the latest Arizona gubernatorial race to Democrat Katie Hobbs, has lashed out against Maricopa County recorder Stephen Richer for suing her over her legal challenge to the election result.

Lake, who ran with former President Donald Trump's endorsement, lost to Hobbs by more than 17,000 votes but refused to concede. Instead, she filed a lawsuit challenging the result of the election, claiming that irregularities in Maricopa County prevented her from winning.

Richer, a Republican who served as recorder in Arizona's most populous county since 2021, filed a defamation lawsuit against Lake on Thursday, alleging she falsely accused him of causing her defeat in November 2022.

In the complaint, as reported by the Washington Post, Richer says that the former television host and two organizations falsely claimed that he "sabotaged the election to prevent Republican candidates, including Lake, from winning."

These targeted accusations, said Richer, were made during campaign rallies, in podcasts and on social media. As Richer told the Washington Post, he tried to fight back against Lake's accusations and even talked to members of her team, but the verbal attacks against him by the former Republican nominee and her supporters did not stop.

"I'm suing Kari Lake. I'd hoped the defamation would stop after the election. I waited," Richer wrote on Twitter.

"I'd hoped it would stop after the first election trial. I waited. I'd hoped it would stop after the appeal. I waited. I'd hoped it would stop after the second trial. I waited. I'd hoped it would stop after she got a new job. I waited. But then I realized I AM the job. Defaming me is her path to campaign donations, speaking opportunities, and national trips," he said, adding that Lake's statements "have altered my life. For the worse. Materially."

Richer was elected recorder in the county in 2020, unseating a Democrat who previously held the role, splitting election duties with the GOP-controlled Maricopa County Board of Supervisors. He's represented in his lawsuit by an attorney from Protect Democracy, which describes itself as a non-partisan, anti-authoritarian group.

Lake shared a screenshot of Richer's tweet and a picture of him on her own Twitter, lashing out against the Republican and calling him a "jackass" who's trying to "silence" her. She also repeated the false claims that Trump won the 2020 presidential election.

"I'm exposing the massive corruption in our elections and this jackass is suing me," she wrote. "He wants to silence US. Trump won in a landslide & so did I. Everyone knows it."

She added: "Corrupt elections have saddled us with disasters like Biden and hobbs. The majority of Americans KNOW our elections are fraudulent. Those who orchestrated the wide-spread fraud want us to shut-up and accept it. We won't. Our country is GONE unless we tackle this problem. They want to stop President Trump. They want to stop me. They want to stop you. Not. Going. To. Happen."

Lake's lawsuit has been consistently rejected in the past few months and an independent review found that problems in Maricopa County were not pervasive and could not have prevented people from voting—or Lake from winning.

Newsweek has contacted Lake and Richer for comment by email and via Twitter, respectively.