Judge in Kari Lake case rejects sanctions, awards $33,000 in legal fees

The judge in Kari Lake's election challenge on Tuesday rejected requests for sanctions and nearly $700,000 in attorney fees but granted $33,000 to pay for expert witnesses hired by Katie Hobbs.

In his ruling, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson wrote that although Lake didn't provide the "clear and convincing evidence" needed to prevail in her case, that was not the same thing as saying her lawsuit over the results of the Arizona governor's race was "groundless and presented in bad faith."

His decision comes a day after attorneys on both sides of the lawsuit made their arguments on whether a request for nearly $700,000 in attorney fees and other expenses sought by Hobbs and Maricopa County officials had merit.

The arguments came in a flurry of holiday-weekend filings after Thompson on Saturday rejected Lake's challenge of the outcome of the governor's race and declared Katie Hobbs the winner of the governor's race.

Attorneys for the defendants filed motions seeking $695,975 in attorneys' fees and other costs related to the case from Lake's camp, complying with Thompson's order to make their requests by Dec. 26.

The defendant attorneys, who represent the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, Gov.-elect Hobbs, as well as Hobbs in her capacity as secretary of state, argued sanctions are warranted because Lake presented a frivolous case that lacked any evidence to support her claims that problems with chain of custody and printers at Maricopa County vote centers were deliberate and led to her loss.

"Indeed, the entire purpose of this case was to plant baseless seeds of doubt in the electorate's mind about the integrity and security of the 2022 General Election in Maricopa County," attorneys for the county wrote in their argument to Thompson.

"And while it is one thing to do so on TV and social media sites, it is another thing entirely to attempt to try to use the imprimatur of the courts to achieve that goal."

Among the many examples they cited was a tweet Lake commented on the day after losing her case. She linked to a TownHall.com report which said Lake's case shows voter disenfranchisement no longer matters. Lake's comment was attached to a tweet from attorney and conservative writer Rachel Alexander that claimed "legal experts" believed Thompson's ruling was "ghostwritten" by attorneys representing Hobbs. Lake has since deleted the tweet and her comment.

Lake's attorneys late Monday responded that their lawsuit was legitimate, in part because Thompson advanced two of Lake's claims to trial, even as he dismissed eight others. The trial resulted in a Christmas Eve ruling rejecting Lake's case and declaring Hobbs the winner of the governor's race.

In arguing against sanctions, attorneys Bryan Blehm and Kurt Olsen used the same reasoning that Hobbs and county officials cited as they fought Lake's lawsuit.

"Trust in the election process is not furthered by punishing those who bring legitimate claims, as Plaintiff did here," Blehm and Olsen wrote. "In fact, sanctioning Plaintiff would have the opposite effect."

They disputed the county's contention that the case was evidence-free, pointing to the numerous witnesses they presented.

However, Thompson ruled that the electoral misconduct alleged in the case was not proven to be deliberate and intended to deny Lake a win.

Thompson noted Hobbs' margin of victory — 17, 117 votes — was beyond the threshold for an automatic recount and said he would not reverse the will of the voters.

"A court setting such a margin aside, as far as the Court has been able to determine, has never been done in the history of the United States," Thompson wrote in his Dec. 24 ruling.

He said he would issue a judgment on sanctions after the requests had been filed. Attorneys for the defendants presented details that showed their costs over the course of the two-day trial conducted Dec. 21 and 22. They said they would need more time to compile other litigation-related expenses if the court would accept them.

On Tuesday, however, Thompson limited the award of fees to the costs the legal team representing Hobbs in her role as Arizona secretary of state paid for expert witnesses. That came to $33,040.50, with a 7.5% annual interest rate.

While this is the first election challenge in which sanctions requests have been filed, the judge in Mark Finchem's case has allowed attorneys to file a similar request. Finchem lost his bid for Arizona secretary of state and a court dismissed his case for failure to prove any evidence of misconduct. Those filings are due the first week of January.

Attorneys for Attorney General-elect Kris Mayes have asked for permission to file a sanctions request in the case brought by Abe Hamadeh, who lost the AG race to Mayes.

Lake said she would appeal her lower court losses.

Finchem took his appeal directly to the state Supreme Court, skipping over the state Court of Appeals.

Hamadeh indicated he would wait for the results of the automatic recount in his race before deciding what to do next.

The recount results will be announced Thursday morning.

Reach the reporter at maryjo.pitzl@arizonarepublic.com and follow her on Twitter @maryjpitzl.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Kari Lake must pay $33,000 in fees after rejected election challenge