Kari Lake Turns to Discredited Trump Ploy as Lawsuit Rumbles On

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Giulia Carbonaro is a Newsweek reporter based in London, U.K. Her focus is on the U.S. economy, housing market, property insurance market, local and national politics. She has previously extensively covered U.S. and European politics. Giulia joined Newsweek in 2022 from CGTN Europe and had previously worked at the European Central Bank. She is a graduate in Broadcast Journalism from Nottingham Trent University and holds a Bachelor's degree in Politics and International Relations from Università degli Studi di Cagliari, Italy. She speaks English, Italian, and a little French and Spanish. You can get in touch with Giulia by emailing: g.carbonaro@newsweek.com.

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Kari Lake, the Republican candidate who lost Arizona's gubernatorial race to Democrat Katie Hobbs in November 2022, is reportedly offering her supporters that she'll put in 10 times every donation she receives to bolster her legal efforts to overturn the election's results.

A similar fundraising scheme has reportedly been used by Donald Trump before, and Department of Justice (DOJ) called such ploys fraudulent in 2021.

Kari Lake
Arizona GOP gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake speaks to the media after voting on November 8, 2022 in Phoenix, Arizona. Lake has offered to match the donations of supporters contributing to her legal battle to overturn... John Moore/Getty Images

Lake, who has been seeking legal funds since December, has shared a message with her supporters announcing a "major upgrade alert" in her campaign to fund her election lawsuit, "Save Arizona Fund," as reported Friday on Twitter by attorney and historian Ron Filipkowski.

"Thank you for being such a staunch supporter of free and fair elections!" reads the message. "Activate 10x MATCH to complete your new status."

This fundraising tactic of matching contributions became quite popular in recent years on both sides of the political spectrum, but political campaigners have distanced themselves from the fundraising gimmick.

It follows a DOJ court filing in May 2021 that deemed deceptive those appeals promising to multiply a donor's money , calling them "material misrepresentations." In the filing, federal prosecutors were taking aim at a pro-Trump group not officially affiliated with the former president.

However, in August 2021, the Wall Street Journal reported that the former president's official "Save America" fundraising committee was still offering supporters a "400 percent impact" on their donation, promising a return of $2,500 on a $500 donation.

The promise of matching funds is known to be an effective way to boost donations for a political campaign, though, as DOJ federal prosecutors already concluded two years ago, the scheme is misleading in what he offers donors.

Lake, a former news anchor turned anti-media firebrand, is trying to overturn the result of Arizona's gubernatorial race, despite losing to her Democratic rival Katie Hobbs by more than 17,000 votes and despite her election lawsuit being already thrown out of court once.

In December 2022, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson found that Lake had not provided clear and convincing evidence of the widespread misconduct that she alleged had compromised the result of the Arizona governor's race and threw her case out of court.

Lake, who alleges that there were problems with ballot printers at polling stations in the county on election day, November 8, 2022, has since then appealed to Arizona Appeals Court. Her case is expected to be heard by judges on February 1.

Newsweek reached out to Lake's team for comment.

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About the writer

Giulia Carbonaro is a Newsweek reporter based in London, U.K. Her focus is on the U.S. economy, housing market, property insurance market, local and national politics. She has previously extensively covered U.S. and European politics. Giulia joined Newsweek in 2022 from CGTN Europe and had previously worked at the European Central Bank. She is a graduate in Broadcast Journalism from Nottingham Trent University and holds a Bachelor's degree in Politics and International Relations from Università degli Studi di Cagliari, Italy. She speaks English, Italian, and a little French and Spanish. You can get in touch with Giulia by emailing: g.carbonaro@newsweek.com.

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Giulia Carbonaro is a Newsweek reporter based in London, U.K. Her focus is on the U.S. economy, housing market, property ... Read more