Kari Lake declines to defend defamation lawsuit filed by Arizona election official

PHOENIX (AP) — Kari Lake, a Republican Senate candidate in Arizona who says she lost a 2022 race for governor because of fraud, is declining to defend against a defamation lawsuit filed by a top election official.

Lake this week asked a judge to jump directly to the damages phase of the lawsuit filed by Republican Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer. The extraordinarily rare request for a default judgment seeks to bypass the opportunity to argue her statements weren’t defamatory, skipping ahead to determine how much she owes Richer.

The court had already rejected her motion to dismiss the case, and the Arizona Supreme Court declined to take her appeal.

“After months of doubling down and defending their lies across Arizona, in the media, and on social media, when push came to shove, the defendants decided to completely back down and concede that their lies were just that: lies,” Richer said in a statement.

While declining to defend her statements in court, Lake maintains she was truthful and says she wants to avoid spending time and money on a protracted legal process. She questioned whether Richer can prove that he was harmed by her statements and demanded he release his medical and psychological records.

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