Kari Lake's attorneys fined for repeated 'unequivocally false' claims in Arizona election challenge

The Arizona Supreme Court on Thursday ordered sanctions against former gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake's lawyers for "unequivocally false" claims made in court about 35,000 ballots added to last year's election vote count.

Attorneys for Gov. Katie Hobbs and Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, both Democrats, sought sanctions against Lake for bringing what they called a frivolous and unfounded lawsuit.

The order signed by Chief Justice Robert Brutinel declined to award Hobbs and Fontes their attorneys fees and said Lake's lawyers must pay $2,000 to the court clerk for repeatedly claiming it was an "undisputed fact" that 35,563 ballots were added to the results at Maricopa County’s third-party ballot processor, Runbeck Election Services. Hobbs, Fontes and Maricopa County all disputed the claim.

Even after the Supreme Court itself said Lake did not show evidence to prove ballots were added, her attorneys Bryan Blehm and Kurt Olsen made the claim again in an April court filing.

"Sometimes campaigns and their attendant hyperbole spill over into legal challenges," the Arizona Supreme Court order reads. "But once a contest enters the judicial arena, rules of attorney ethics apply." Those rules build confidence in the judicial system, the court said, noting that sanctions can deter lawyers from making false statements in the future.

Olsen is a Washington, D.C.-based attorney who helped with a lawsuit challenging the 2020 election results that was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court, and Blehm is known locally for dual work representing the Arizona Senate and its hired contractor in the 2020 ballot review, which raised concerns of a conflict.

"We respectfully disagree with the court's holding, but look forward to presenting our case at trial," Olsen said in an email, referencing a prior decision that extends the life of Lake's election challenge.

Lake, a former television news anchor and Republican nominee for governor, lost to Hobbs in November by less than 1 percentage point, or about 17,000 votes. She has continued to challenge the defeat in court, claiming election malfeasance by Maricopa County election officials, who are predominantly Republicans, and Hobbs, who was secretary of state at the time. Lake asked judges to declare her the governor or order a re-do of the election in Maricopa County.

But she hasn't proved her claims before three Arizona courts who have looked at the case, including a Maricopa County judge that heard two days of testimony, an appeals court and the Arizona Supreme Court.

Hobbs asked the Arizona Supreme Court to order Lake to cover her legal fees and expenses, arguing Lake's claims were "frivolous" and "based solely on her fixation to litigate to the end, and not on any actual basis to appeal other than her own disagreement and disappointment with the results of the election and the lower courts’ rulings."

Lawyers for Fontes, who was elected Secretary of State last year and who oversees elections and procedural guidelines counties must follow, sought sanctions "or some kind of admonishment" as a deterrent to future baseless challenges.

Court rules and state law allow for judges to order attorneys fees to be paid by the opposing legal party in certain circumstances. The Arizona Supreme Court declined to order Lake to pay those attorneys fees, however, noting that one of her claims, concerning signature verification, is still pending.

Lake's lawyers argued against sanctions, doubling down on the allegation that ballots were added and defending the former gubernatorial candidate's claims about the election last year as genuine.

"Nor can anyone doubt that Lake honestly believes that electoral misconduct and illegal votes determined the outcome of the 2022 gubernatorial election," they wrote in an April court filing

Lake is expected to continue her legal fight focusing on the signature verification issue. The Supreme Court in March said a Maricopa County judge should reconsider one of Lake's seven claims, and that will proceed now.

Reach reporter Stacey Barchenger at stacey.barchenger@arizonarepublic.com or 480-416-5669. Follow her on Twitter @sbarchenger.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: AZ Supreme Court hits Lake attorneys with sanctions on election suit