Kari Lake won’t fight defamation lawsuit brought by election official

Kari Lake, the US Senate candidate in Arizona who lost her 2022 bid for governor thanks in part to her refusal to untie herself from far-right conspiracy theories, seems unwilling to defend those same conspiracies under oath.

The former TV news anchor and current Trump superfan is running for the Senate seat being vacated in January by Kyrsten Sinema, the once-Democrat-now-independent first-term senator who announced that she would not stand for re-election after learning that she was in a distant third place in the polls. Ms Lake is set to run against Ruben Gallego, a congressman from Phoenix, who is leading her in polling.

While she previously indicated in an interview with Trump confidant Steve Bannon that she would fight a civil suit brought against her for alleged defamation of an Arizona elections official, Stephen Richer, Ms Lake’s team this week filed a motion to move directly to the phase of her trial where damages will be assessed. Ms Lake had repeatedly targeted the Maricopa County Recorder, Mr Richer, and accused him of “sabotaging” elections in the county in 2022 and deliberately misprinting ballots — both accusations were lies, and even in her defiant statement posted to Twitter, Ms Lake is no longer defending them.

“I didn’t surrender, I simply cut-to-the-chase. We filed papers demanding a hearing in 30 days for Stephen to prove how my words harmed him. I am ready to go to court now, Stephen. Are you? Arizona law still requires you to prove with witnesses and with evidence, that I caused you—in your own words—“substantial injuries,” Stephen, can you?”

Nowhere in her lengthy post demanding to know how badly she will potentially be getting hosed in the upcoming portion of her civil trial did Ms Lake defend