Kari Lake seeks to forfeit her defense in defamation case

MicroWave@lemmy.world to politics @lemmy.world – 91 points – Kari Lake seeks to forfeit her defense in defamation case
thehill.com

Attorneys for Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake moved to forfeit a defamation case against her on Tuesday, choosing not to contest the allegations that she defamed a state election worker after the 2022 election.

Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer (R) sued Lake last year in his personal capacity, claiming Lake defamed him after she refused to concede her 2022 Arizona gubernatorial defeat and alleged election fraud.

The lawsuit claims that Lake consistently and systemically lied about Richer’s actions as recorder, causing him to receive harassment and numerous threats to his life. Richer added that Lake claimed without evidence that he stuffed ballot boxes with 300,000 invalid votes and used his role as recorder to make the ballot unclear for voters.

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Personally, I think this kind of legal deal is BS. These types of people need to be held accountable and publicly called guilty. Every time one of them "settles" they basically get away with what they did. Most people never hear about it.

To be fair, this is a civil case, so there isn't really a "guilty" or "not guilty" verdict. But if I'm reading this correctly, she's not settling this case, but instead is just not going to defend herself in court, which will probably result in a ruling in favor of the plaintiff and her owing damages to him.

Its basically a No Contest plea

I guess my problem is that this decision basically makes the public awareness of her actions go away for most people. It matters to me because she is running for public office.

Summary of the article in their own words:

Richer:

“Won’t defend / can’t defend,” he wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter. “I’ll get my due. But not the millions of people she lied to.”

“Not the thousands of people who donated ‘to continue the fight.’ Not the people who have gone to jail because they so strongly believed Kari’s lies,” he continued. “Those people won’t get their due.”

Lake:

However, Lake brushed off the filing as a rejection to participate in what she described as a “political witch hunt” and a “frivolous” lawsuit, refusing to admit culpability.

“Washington, D.C. operates on blackmail and bribes. Since they can’t blackmail or bribe me, they’ve resorted to filing a punishing lawsuit to try to stop me and bleed me dry,” she said in a video message. “They’re threatening to take everything I own. What they don’t realize is even if they leave me, my husband and children homeless and penniless, that won’t stop us.”

“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 continued. “So I won’t be taking part.”

Same BS as in the Ken Paxton situation. They don't admit any wrong, return any fraudulently made money at best, and walk away at the end of the day still in a better place financially and/or politically then before they committed their crimes.

This stuff needs to be stamped out. Nobody wants this future for this country other than criminals. As in the Richer quote, the people following these con artists aren't doing it because this is what they want, they're being duped and it is unfair to not get justice for them as well.

Always republicans...

Don't forget about Gold Bar Bob!

Embattled Sen. Bob Menendez says he won’t run in Democratic primary for Senate seat but leaves open running as an independent

Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey announced Thursday he will not run for reelection in the Democratic primary for his US Senate seat, but left open the possibility that he could run as an independent candidate.

“I will not file for the Democratic primary this June. I am hopeful that my exoneration will take place this summer and allow me to pursue my candidacy as an independent Democrat in the general election,” Menendez, who is facing bribery and obstruction of justice charges, said in a video posted online.

The news comes as Menendez had faced calls to resign, including from a number of his Senate Democratic colleagues, as a result of the charges.

I don't want crooks on this side of the aisle either!