After Kari Lake's Court Loss, Opponent Wants Her to Pay Up

Katie Hobbs wants Kari Lake and her lawyers to pay for what Hobbs, the governor-elect of Arizona, calls a "frivolous" (and ultimately unsuccessful) lawsuit challenging the results of November's gubernatorial election. Hobbs, along with Maricopa County, on Monday asked a judge to sanction Lake and her legal team, Law and Crime reports. "Enough really is enough. It is past time to end unfounded attacks on elections and unwarranted accusations against elections officials," Maricopa County Deputy Attorney Thomas P. Liddy wrote in a memo noting that courts "should not be used to harass political opponents and sow completely unfounded doubts about the integrity of elections. All of those things happened in this matter.”

"Before a single vote was counted in the 2022 general election, Kari Lake publicly stated that she would accept the results of the gubernatorial election only if she were the winning candidate," Maricopa County said in the motion for sanctions, per NBC News. The county wants $25,050 in attorney fees, while Hobbs filed a separate motion for sanctions totaling $550,210, per Law and Crime. Those are slated to go toward attorney fees as well as other fees and expenses. On Monday night, Lake's lawyers filed a response asking the court to deny the sanctions request, Reuters reports. "Trust in the election process is not furthered by punishing those who bring legitimate claims as plaintiff did here," the filing says. "In fact, sanctioning plaintiff would have the opposite effect."