Republican Arizona Senate hopeful Kari Lake forfeited her ability to defend herself in a defamation lawsuit, instead asking the court to decide damages.
Lake, who lost her 2022 bid for governor to now-Gov. Katie Hobbs (D-AZ), justified her decision by saying she was a victim of lawfare, or the use of the legal system to impoverish a political opponent. She requested that the judge set a default judgment hearing, forfeiting her right to defend herself, and instead go straight to determining whether or not damages are owed to the plaintiff and how much.
The lawsuit was brought forward by Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, who accused Lake of making defamatory statements surrounding the 2022 gubernatorial election. Richer, who is also a Republican and filed the lawsuit from a personal capacity, claimed Lake and her gubernatorial campaign team falsely accused him of causing the loss, resulting in threats against him and his family.
He was quick to take Lake’s move on Tuesday as an admission of defeat.
“Complete and total surrender by @KariLake,” he wrote in a post on X. “Kari: You lied. You just accepted liability. You will now have a judgment entered, in court, against you, for lying about our elections and me. It was all B.S. Now on to damages.”
Lake saw things a different way, viewing her move as a tactical retreat in order to avoid getting sucked into what she called a “political witch hunt.”
“By participating in this lawsuit, it would only serve to legitimize this perversion of our legal system and allow bad actors to interfere in our upcoming election,” she said in a video statement. “So I won’t be taking part. Instead, I will focus, and continue to focus, on the issues that matter to the people of Arizona — securing the border, bringing back our economy, improving health care and education. Arizona is worth fighting for, and that’s exactly what I will continue to do.”
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The surprise move is “very rare,” according to one of Richer’s lawyers, Ben Berwick.
“It is extraordinary to see a defendant in civil litigation concede like this,” he told the Arizona Republic.
