Kari Lake engaged a prominent Democratic attorney who rose to prominence during the Trump-Russia controversy to overturn the results of the governor’s race from last month. Legal costs will be paid only if the attorney wins the case.
The AZ Law blog reported on Monday that the new governor of Arizona, Katie Hobbs, and Maricopa County had filed petitions for penalties against Lake and her attorneys, which may result in nearly $700.000 in restitution for attorneys’ fees and costs. Attorney Marc Elias, who managed the notorious anti-Trump dossier collected by British ex-spy Christopher Steele and paid by Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee, may receive a large portion of this money.
Hobbs, the Arizona Secretary of State and potential contender submitted the necessary documents. In the latter paper, the Elias Law Group received $35,762.50 in preparation for last week’s trial, out of a total of $56,585. Formerly Elias’ company, the legal firm Perkins Coie, contributed $20,822.50 to his 2016 campaign, as they have done in past elections.
For “additional legal services in connection with the election dispute,” the document estimates payments of $457,032.50 to the Elias Law Group and $93,177.50 to Perkins Coie.
Lake, a Republican favored by Trump, lost to Hobbs in November’s election by a margin of about 17,000. Lake has since sued Hobbs and Maricopa County.
As Phoenix and the state capitol are both located in Maricopa County, several voting machines and printers did not operate on election day (November 8). Lake took legal action in response, saying that “hundreds of thousands of illegal ballots contaminated the election in Maricopa County,” nullifying the votes of tens of thousands of Republicans.
At first, Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson dismissed eight of Lake’s ten claims. Two cases, however, involving claims of intentional misconduct owing to faulty ballot printers and failure to follow vote chain-of-custody requirements, were approved for trial. On Saturday, following a brief hearing in which they were only permitted to evaluate a fraction of the ballots, a judge in Phoenix ruled against Lake. Already, Lake has stated his intention to appeal.
Maricopa County’s lawyers responded to Lake’s 16-page lawsuit with a lengthy rebuttal, stating that Lake’s claim was “groundless” and “not brought in good faith.” After the case was dropped, Lake was accused of attacking the court’s credibility by tweeting a link to a Townhall blog and highlighting the sentence, “Legal experts believe his judgment was ghostwritten, they assume prominent left-wing attorneys like Marc Elias told him [the judge] what to say.”
Elias replied, “I was intrigued what conspiracy theory Kari Lake would provide for why she lost her election challenge case,” to a tweet that has since been removed. My expectations were far lower than this.
The Daily Wire reached out to Brian Blehm and Kurt Olsen, Lake’s lawyers, to get their take on the proposed sentences.