Lake Forfeits Defense in Defamation Case

A very interesting event just took place in a defamation case filed against Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake.

Lake just forfeited her right to defense in a defamation case that was brought against her by a state election worker.

Lake is spinning this as best she can, but this will not bode well for her during the election.

Giving Up

The suit had been filed by Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer (R) after Lake refused to concede the election.

Lake decided to go full Trump after losing, claiming that the election was rigged and she refused to admit that she had lost.

Lake, without any direct evidence, had claimed that Richer stuffed ballot boxes with hundreds of thousands of invalid votes.

He stated, “For the last seven months, I have been subjected to constant harassment, intimidation, and threats to my and my family’s lives because the defendants in this case were spreading falsehoods about me, my work, and our elections.”

Lake has decided to forfeit her defense, but she claims she is only doing this to move forward and does not want to get involved in a bogus lawsuit that would drain her family's resources.

Lake stated, “Washington, D.C. operates on blackmail and bribes. Since they can’t blackmail or bribe me, they’ve resorted to filing a punishing lawsuit to try to stop me and bleed me dry.

“They’re threatening to take everything I own. What they don’t realize is even if they leave me, my husband, and children homeless and penniless, that won’t stop us.

“By participating in this lawsuit, it would only serve to legitimize this perversion of our legal system and allow bad actors to interfere in our upcoming election.

“So I won’t be taking part.”

Richer took her forfeiture as a sign of guilt, posting, “Won’t defend / can’t defend.

“I’ll get my due. But not the millions of people she lied to.

“Not the thousands of people who donated ‘to continue the fight.’ Not the people who have gone to jail because they so strongly believed Kari’s lies.

“Those people won’t get their due.”

This is a pretty big deal because both Lake and Trump have insisted their respective losses were only due to rigged elections, so it will be interesting to see how voters respond to this latest development as well as how the media uses this against Lake.

Lake and her Democrat opponent, Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) have been jockeying back and forth, but Gallego was ahead in the most recent polling.

In the March 12-15 Emerson College-The Hill poll, Gallego held a two-point lead over Lake (51-49).

We are still waiting for these numbers to balance out after the withdrawal of Senator Sinema (I-AZ) from the race, but it does appear as though the majority of her voters have swung over the Gallego because he was four points down against Lake in polling that took place before Sinema left the race.