Kari Lake alleges legal actions against her and her attorneys are politically motivated

Senate candidate Kari Lake, appearing at an event put on by conservative group Turning Point USA, doubled down on assertions that legal action against her and other people who pushed false claims about U.S. elections are politically motivated.

The group’s annual “AmericaFest” conference in Phoenix over the weekend featured several high-profile Republican U.S. politicians, including Lake, presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.

Lake, like the other speakers, was greeted onstage Sunday by a display more reminiscent of a rock concert than a typical political rally: Flame machines spit columns of fire, blasting music sent palpable vibrations through the room and red, white and blue animations danced around the large auditorium.

Along with familiar criticisms of her political opponents and journalists, Lake railed against the ongoing efforts to reprimand her and her associates for spreading false information surrounding U.S. elections.

Lake first lashed out at the system for attorney discipline in the state. An Arizona Supreme Court panel had found probable cause to discipline three lawyers who made false claims in court and on social media while representing Lake’s election lawsuits. This greenlights the State Bar of Arizona to file formal complaints against the trio and pursue further actions before a disciplinary judge.

Lake also condemned the ongoing defamation lawsuit that Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, a Republican, has filed against her. Richer is alleging that Lake and her associates harmed him by spreading information about him that Lake knew, or should have known, were false.

She portrayed the litigation as a coordinated intimidation effort rather than the due course of law.

“Because I’ve had the courage to speak out, now they’re suing me for defamation,” she said. “They're coming after my attorneys just as I’m being sued by one of these corrupt election officials.”

No evidence of significant fraud has been discovered in either the 2020 presidential election or in Arizona’s 2022 governor’s election.

Arizona's Supreme Court has dismissed Lake's challenges to the 2022 election, aside for one point related to voter signature verification. Lake is still appealing that point.

Lake also defended an earlier Turning Point speaker, the comedian Roseanne Barr, whose hit sitcom was canceled after she posted a series of racist tweets.

“They're going after you. None of us are safe,” Lake said.

Arizona-based Turning Point USA and its political wing, led by Charlie Kirk, have galvanized grassroots devotees of the MAGA movement and helped remake the Arizona Republican Party in the image of former President Donald Trump.

Appearing on the same stage hours earlier, Ramaswamy, the longshot presidential candidate, spoke Sunday in what his campaign said was his first political event in Arizona.

Ramaswamy, an entrepreneur, repeated the fringe views he has embraced on the campaign trail, including the belief that the U.S. government "had not told us the truth" about 9/11, and that the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol may have been instigated by federal agents.

He also affirmed a recent comment he made endorsing the "great replacement theory," which holds that left-leaning elites are purposefully replacing a white population with non-white immigrants. That view, a tenet of white nationalist ideology, has motivated multiple mass shootings in the U.S.

“The 'great replacement theory' is not some grand right-wing conspiracy. It is a basic statement of the Democratic party’s immigration platform," Ramaswamy said.

Earlier at the event, Patrick Byrne, the longtime CEO of Overstock.com and a major funder of Arizona’s Republican-led election recount in 2020, encouraged the formation of “well-ordered militias in conjunction (with) your sheriffs,” according to the social media account Arizona Right Watch.

Laura Gersony covers national politics for The Arizona Republic.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Kari Lake alleges legal actions against her are politically motivated