#LyingLoserLake Appeal Denied & Bar Sanctions Against Her ‘Lawyers’ Pending

Update to Mike Lindell Bankrolls Kari Lake And Mark Finchem Lawsuit To Ban Ballot-Counting Machines In Arizona and Court Dismisses ‘Big Lie’ Election Deniers ‘Krazy Kari’ Lake And Mark Finchem Lawsuit To Ban Ballot-Counting Machines (Updated).

As every sentient human being fully expected, the Appeals court rejects “Krazy Kari” Lake’s challenge of election loss to Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs (NBC News):

An appeals court Thursday rejected Republican Kari Lake’s challenge of her election loss to Democrat Katie Hobbs in the 2022 Arizona governor’s race.

The three-judge panel upheld a lower court ruling that said Lake had not provided evidence to support her claims that the November results were tainted by illegal votes and misconduct by election officials.

Chief Judge Kent E. Cattani wrote Thursday that the evidence presented earlier to the Superior Court in Maricopa County “ultimately supports the court’s conclusion that voters were able to cast their ballots, that votes were counted correctly, and that no other basis justifies setting aside the election results.”

Hobbs defeated Lake by 17,117 votes.

Lake, a prominent election denier and Trump ally, had filed a 70-page lawsuit in December seeking a court order declaring her the winner. It was ultimately denied by Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson.

In her appeal, Lake argued that Thompson had erred by requiring she provide proof that her allegations of official misconduct affected the election results.

Cattani, however, agreed that Lake needed to provide “competent mathematical basis to conclude that the outcome would plausibly have been different, not simply an untethered assertion of uncertainty.”

The appeals court opinion also addressed one of Lake’s chief assertions — that ballot printers had been compromised and that on-site tabulators had failed to read some ballots — by saying the lower court had offered ample evidence to support a conclusion that the ballot printer and tabulator issues stemmed from “mechanical functions that were ultimately remedied.”

“Lake’s claim thus boils down to a suggestion that election-day issues led to long lines at vote centers, which frustrated and discouraged voters, which allegedly resulted in a substantial number of predominately Lake voters not voting,” Cattani wrote. “But Lake’s only purported evidence that these issues had any potential effect on election results was, quite simply, sheer speculation.”

A federal judge late last year sanctioned lawyers for Lake and fellow Republican Mark Finchem, who ran an unsuccessful campaign for secretary of state, over an election-related lawsuit.

NBC News reported Thursday that the legal group 65 Project was planning to file bar complaints against four lawyers from Mike Lindell’s election denier conspiracy shop representing “Krazy Kari” Lake in her bogus election challenge. Kari Lake’s lawyers hit with bar complaints:

A legal group plans to file bar complaints Thursday against four lawyers representing Kari Lake in voter fraud litigation, NBC News has learned.

Lake, a Donald Trump acolyte who has refused to accept that she lost the governor’s race in Arizona last year, campaigned on the voter fraud claims first popularized by the former president. She filed lawsuits before and after the election advancing the claims, despite having no clear evidence of election fraud.

A federal judge has already sanctioned her lawyers for their efforts, but they could face suspensions or even disbarment.

The 65 Project, a group targeting attorneys who advance spurious election fraud claims in court, said it is filing bar complaints in Minnesota and Maryland against attorneys Jesse Kibort, Joseph Pull and Andrew Parker, who are licensed to practice law in Minnesota, and Kurt Olsen, who is licensed in Maryland. They did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The four lawyers represented Lake and Mark Finchem, then a Republican candidate for secretary of state in Arizona, in a lawsuit first filed in April challenging the use of electronic voting machines. Lake and Finchem claimed the devices could not be trusted.

“This was [a] pre-planned, orchestrated effort to disrupt Arizona’s election even before it began and claim that there was fraud,” said Michael Teter, the managing director of The 65 Project.

Over the last year, The 65 Project has filed dozens of complaints against attorneys — including one against former Trump attorney Alan Dershowitz, who is also listed as an attorney in the Lake suit. The group is a bipartisan nonprofit organization with ties to prominent Democrats; David Brock, a left-wing operative, is an adviser. Teter said the group was named for the number of lawsuits that were filed seeking to overturn the 2020 election.

He said that he hopes the complaints will result in suspensions or disbarment for Lake’s attorneys and that the group’s work will continue to deter future election fraud litigation.

“We saw hundreds of election deniers across the country run and lose, and yet very few of them were bringing lawsuits in the aftermath of their losses,” he said. “I think that’s partly attributable to our efforts in 2020.”

In December, Lake said she had found it difficult to find legal representatives.

“We had attorneys who did walk away because the left is threatening them with their ability to make a living and practice law,” she said. “And some of our attorneys said, ‘Look, I got mouths to feed, I can’t do this case, I don’t want to be sanctioned.’”

She continued: “I got to a point where I said, ‘I’ll take anybody. We’ll take ‘Better Call Saul’ to come in here.’”

Not to worry. The election denier MAGA Fascists in the Arizona legislature support election denier Republican attorneys. The Arizona Mirror reports Sanctions for bogus election lawsuits spurs GOP proposal to protect attorneys from punishment:

Angry at lawyers being disciplined for making baseless election fraud complaints in Arizona courts, a Republican legislator says the State Bar of Arizona and the Arizona Supreme Court should be barred from punishing those attorneys and be heavily fined if they do so. 

The bill from Sen. Anthony Kern, R-Glendale, prohibits both the State Bar and the Arizona Supreme Court from “infringing” or “impeding” on the “political speech” of an attorney or an attorney’s clients by disciplining them or revoking their licenses for “bringing a good faith, non frivolous claim that is based in law and fact to court.”

There’s your problem, you election denying insurrectionist on January 6. These are frivolous claims not grounded in fact or law, and not brought in good faith. This POS traitor wants to hobble the State Bar and the state court system.

If they’re deemed to be in violation of the proposed law, they would forfeit 10% of their revenue. For the Bar, that would come from the money it raises through attorney membership dues, while the Supreme Court would see its budget cut as punishment. The penalties would equate to about $1 million for the Bar and nearly $10 million for the Supreme Court.

Courts typically enforce civil laws like the one Kern is proposing, but it’s unclear who would determine if the court or the Bar is in violation of this measure. The legislation is silent on the matter.

The Arizona Supreme Court and the State Bar both denounced the measure. 

“Attorneys are not disciplined for bringing good faith claims,” the State Bar said in a statement provided to the Arizona Mirror. “The professional ethics rules governing the conduct of legal professionals prohibit attorneys from bringing frivolous litigation that is not in good faith.”

The Bar said the law is “unnecessary.” and noted that courts exist “to provide forums to fairly resolve disputes within the bounds of professional ethics rules” and should not be a “general forum for political expression.”

The Supreme Court also said there was no problem needing to be fixed by this proposed law. 

“Lawyers are not — nor have they ever been — subject to discipline because of their political views or speech,” the Arizona Supreme Court said in a statement to the Mirror. “Current court rules are quite clear on the reasons why an attorney might be subject to disciplinary action — political speech is not one of them.

“The court is a forum with a purpose to fairly resolve disputes within the bounds of professional ethics rules. The courts are not a forum for political speech when that speech does not have a basis in fact or law.”

Kern’s Senate Bill 1092 comes as attorneys across the country and in Arizona have faced disciplinary action and revocation of their licenses for bringing challenges to the election based on frivolous claims of election fraud as well as lawsuits against political rivals. 

Kern, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee [WTF?], told senators that one inspiration for his proposal is that a member in the state House of Representatives [Alexander Kolodin] almost had his license revoked for bringing a lawsuit. He also admitted that he did not like the State Bar of Arizona.

“I don’t like what they do and I don’t like how they’re set up,” Kern said.

Newly elected state Rep. Alexander Kolodin, R-Scottsdale, has been a go-to attorney for Republicans for a number of election-related lawsuits. He was also one of nine attorneys that had Bar complaints filed against them for representing Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign in a failed lawsuit that falsely claimed overvotes impacted the Arizona election. 

There’s also a personal ax to grind for Kern. Along with former state legislator Mark Finchem and U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar, he brought a lawsuit against former Democratic lawmaker Charlene Fernandez accusing her of defamation for a letter that she signed with 43 other Democratic members of the legislature asking for the Department of Justice to investigate the trios role in the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

The three Republicans lost the suit and were told to pay $75,000 in attorney fees to Fernandez. They are asking for the case to be appealed and reinstated. 

Finchem himself has been sanctioned twice by the courts.

“I believe in free speech and I don’t want to see people get penalized,” Kern told his colleagues when the Senate Judiciary Committee considered his measure on Feb. 9, adding that “wokeness” creates issues for attorneys. “Your profession should not be penalized no matter what you believe.”

Democratic Sen. Mitzi Epstein keyed in on Kern’s concern about “wokeness” and asked him to define what it means. He replied that it was a philosophy that aims to “ruin structures that have been in place for years…under the guise of Marxism, socialism.”

Sen. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, used the crowdsourced website Urban Dictionary, which has been known to host racist content due to lax moderation policies, to define the word “woke.”

“I, myself, have not formulated my own personal definition,” Kavanagh admitted to the committee after reading two definitions from the website.

The bill passed along party lines and will head next to the full Senate for consideration.

Gov. Katie Hobbs will veto this election denier insurrectionist bill if it ever makes it to her desk. Every MAGA Fascist member of the legislature who votes for this bill must be removed from office.