Rack up yet another loss for Kari Lake.
This time, it’s the Arizona Court of Appeals, which on Wednesday declined Lake’s plea that she shouldn’t be held accountable for what comes out of her mouth.
Lake appealed to the court on Friday, asking the three-judge panel to overrule a trial judge’s refusal to throw out Maricopa County Stephen Richer’s defamation lawsuit against her.
It took only five days for the Court of Appeals to say no.
So, the case will go forward to trial.
Isn’t a trial good for Kari Lake?
I, for one, would think Lake would be happy.
For one thing, she can continue raising money from the MAGA Nation as she rails on about her First Amendment right to accuse Richer of criminal activity.
For another, she now will have the opportunity to prove her oft-repeated claim that he intentionally sabotaged the 2022 election.
Isn’t that a good thing if you are Kari Lake?
For more than a year, Lake has lambasted Maricopa County elections workers and officials and Richer in particular, detailing the many ways in which this lifelong Republican plotted to steal the election from her, the Republican nominee for governor.
The only thing she hasn’t offered up is any actual proof. Thus, her lengthy streak of losses in every court she has thus far approached a court with her incendiary claims.
In June, Richer — fed up finally with the harassment and the death threats to him and his family — called her on it, suing Lake for defamation.
Judge nixed ‘rhetorical hyperbole’ claim
Rather than demanding a quick trial so that she can “out” this supposedly dirty public official, Lake has asked — twice now — that the lawsuit be dismissed.
She claims Richer has no right to try to hold her accountable, no matter how many death threats he and his family must endure.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Jay Adleman disagreed. Last month, he rejected her lawyers’ claim that her accusations of intentional sabotage weren’t really claims of intentional sabotage but “mere rhetorical hyperbole.”
The judge didn’t buy it, pointing out that her specific claims of criminal activity are either provable — or not.
The judge also rejected her claim that the lawsuit is just a sleazy, illegal attempt by a politician to silence his critics.
“The court is satisfied that the disputed statements — if indeed they are ‘provable’ as false or defamatory — would be undeserving of the protections associated with our First Amendment principles,” Adleman wrote.
Kari Lake dug this hole herself
In fact, he found that Richer may also have the goods to prove “actual malice,” which is another way of saying Kari Lake is in deep, deep trouble.
Maybe not Rudy Giuliani deep — Giuliani was recently hit with a $148 million jury verdict after a judge found he defamed a pair of Georgia poll workers — but a hole nonetheless.
One that she dug with her own mouth.
Trump’s taunt of McCain: Is bad news for Kari Lake
Of course, Lake doesn’t see it that way. She casts herself as the courageous victim, standing up to the forces of evil that conspire to silence her and rob her of a spot in the U.S. Senate.
“@StephenRicher is suing me for defamation through a Soros-backed group called Project Democracy. It’s an in-kind donation to @RubenGallego. But it’s bigger than that,” she wrote, in response to Wednesday’s ruling. “They’re trying to take away our protected political speech so nobody running for office will be able to speak out and criticize elected officials.
“They’re trying to criminalize honest journalism and our freedom of the press. They’re trying to prevent moms and dads from going to school board meetings and criticizing their representatives. If this is successful, it will be the death of our First Amendment. People need to care and pay attention to this.”
So, America won’t be America anymore because Kari Lake is being asked to back up her accusation that Stephen Richer committed crimes in order to fix the 2022 election?
Now, she can prove her claims in court
Wednesday’s appellate court ruling clears the way for Lake to prove her claim that personally sabotaged the election by adding 300,000 phony ballots to the vote tally. (Never mind that the judge in Lake’s election challenge rejected that claim a year ago.)
She now gets her day in court to prove her claim that he intentionally set printers to shrink Election Day ballots so they couldn’t be counted. (Never mind that Richer has nothing to do with Election Day voting and that the votes ultimately were counted.)
Isn’t that a good thing if you are Kari Lake?
Reach Roberts at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @LaurieRoberts.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Kari Lake gets her day in court to prove Stephen Richer’s a crook