“Rather than accept political defeat” or “get a new job,” Lake has spread false claims about her electoral loss, Stephen Richer says in a new op-ed, noting that he’s lost friendships and received threats as a result
An Arizona election official is suing former Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake for defamation, accusing the controversial ex-news anchor of “engaging in a concerted campaign to defame, threaten and isolate me.”
Maricopa County state recorder Stephen Richer wrote in an op-ed published Friday in The Arizona Republic that Lake’s “defamatory allegations have unleashed violent vitriol and other dire consequences” since she lost the Arizona governor’s race in 2022.
Lake — who was endorsed by Donald Trump in the 2022 race — lost by more than 17,000 votes to Democrat Katie Hobbs, the state’s former secretary of state. Since then, she has worked to cast herself in the image of the former president, denying the outcome of both the 2020 presidential election and her own gubernatorial election.
She also sued Arizona officials, requesting they overturn the results and declare her winner, though that suit was ultimately tossed out of court.
“Rather than accept political defeat, rather than get a new job, [Lake] has sought to undermine confidence in our elections and has mobilized millions of her followers against me,” Richer wrote in the op-ed.
Richer’s defamation lawsuit was filed on June 22 in Maricopa County Superior Court and details how Lake has publicly accused the elections official of “lying,” saying at political rallies, “these guys are really, really terrible at running elections but I found out they’re really good at lying.”
According to the lawsuit, Lake made the false claims while photographs of Richer and another election official “were prominently displayed behind her, and she pointed to those photographs repeatedly while speaking.”
The lawsuit points to several other instances — on podcasts, on social media, and at rallies — when Lake accused Richer of sabotaging the election by inserting hundreds of thousands of invalid ballots into Maricopa county’s vote count.
“Not only would I obviously never do the things that she accuses me of, but also as a matter of Arizona law and election administration processes, I don’t even have responsibility for — or jurisdiction over — the printing of ballots on Election Day,” Richer wrote.
According to Richer, Lake has “irreparably damaged my personal and professional life and reputation, ” provoking death threats and forcing him and his wife to increase security measures.
“I’ve even lost friends and lifelong relationships because Lake has falsely painted me as a criminal,” he added.
Richer’s suit seeks compensatory and punitive damages, attorneys’ fees, and a statement admitting that her claims about him were false and defamatory.
“This case is about a losing candidate for office refusing to accept the will of the voters and, instead, spreading malicious falsehoods to raise money and garner attention,” Richer wrote. “Those falsehoods not only undermine confidence in our elections and our democracy, but they also cause harm to real people — like me.”
Lake came to public attention in 2021, when she left her job as a Phoenix news anchor for KSAZ and released a video in which she lambasted the way, she said, that journalism had changed in recent years.
She announced her race for governor later that same year, making headlines for her Trump-like rhetoric, such as calling late Arizona Sen. John McCain a “loser” after previously praising him as a hero.
In recent months, Lake has been spotted at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort and some sources have speculated she has been vying to be the former president’s 2024 running mate. Lake is widely expected to launch a bid for the U.S. Senate in Arizona in the coming months.