A Republican election official from Maricopa County, Arizona has hit Kari Lake and her
allies and some groups aligned with her with a massive defamation lawsuit alleging that
Kari Lake's lies about the 2022 gubernatorial election in Arizona, specifically in Maricopa
County, have caused this election recorder irreparable harm.
Now, this again, Republican election official in Arizona is Maricopa County, uh, recorder
Steven Ricker.
Now, Mr. Ricker has said in the lawsuit, actually, let me just read this from Washington Post,
in the complaint, Ricker alleges that Lake, her campaign, and a nonprofit organization
tied to her repeatedly and falsely accused him of causing Lake's 2022 defeat Lake.
And the two organizations, the complaint alleges falsely claimed that Ricker sabotaged the
election to prevent Republican candidates, including Lake from winning.
Ricker complaint focuses on accusations made by Lake at campaign rallies in podcasts, and
on social media that Ricker intentionally caused polling place printers to jam on election
day.
The glitches cause temporary disruptions in tabulating the votes, but an independent review
has found that, uh, the problems were not pervasive and did not prevent people from
voting, uh, voting, excuse me.
I don't know why that would prevent people from voting, but no, they weren't able, nobody
was not able to vote, is what I was trying to say.
But Lake has alleged, and they, she's named Mr. Ricker personally out there.
She has put his name out there, whereas it was not out there before.
Um, she has said that this guy somehow got the printers to jam, like, I don't know.
He used this like techno wizardry out there to print ballots that were too big, so they
couldn't go through the, the readers, not the printers by the way, like the printers
were where the ballots came from.
They go into the tabulators.
But either way, um, he didn't do that.
There've actually been several independent reviews of what took place in Maricopa County
as this, uh, uh, complaint alleges.
Like they all found that, nope, that didn't happen.
And Mr. Ricker, of course, a Republican himself would have no motive whatsoever to prevent
Republicans from winning an election that's just downright crazy and stupid.
But it's Carrie Lake we're talking about.
So yeah, but it continues.
Ricker also accused Lake of falsely claiming that he inserted 300,000 phony early voting
ballots into the Maricopa County system.
In December, a judge ruled that there was, that there was no convincing evidence that
ballots were mishandled in a way that would've affected the outcome of the Arizona election.
So in addition to making ballots that are just too darn big, like we don't, what do
we do with these ballots?
She also says, and he just put in an extra 300,000 for Democrats
That none of it makes any sense.
And the, the courts have said, none of this makes any sense.
And the courts have basically told her legal team, like, y'all are lying about this.
And so finally, Mr. Ricker last week, at the end of last week, decided, screw this.
I'm, I'm filing this lawsuit.
And, and he's also said is from him, um, my name continues to be dragged through the mud
in front of millions of her online fo viewers in various platforms, and I felt that I needed
to take the only course left.
Um, he said that, uh, he's tried pushing back against the false claims on social media and
through memos, press releases and news conferences.
He said he worked with members of Lake's team to answer questions they had during and after
the 2022 election.
But he says that, uh, the misinformation spread about him by Lake and her affiliates has harmed
his relationships with friends, his family, and his former political supporters.
So this could impact his career, which of course is a criteria for defamation.
He said he sees a direct link between rhetoric from Lincoln or allies and the threats against
him.
So also receiving threats, you know, about your physical safety is also, you know, a
criteria determined in a defamation case.
And because these two are both technically public officials, you know, the bar to prove
defamation is even a little bit higher.
But that's why I pointed out that last part, because one, does it impact his future income
based on these lies?
Well, if he can't win another election when clearly this guy is, you know, a politician,
then yes it does.
So, boom, he is a valid case.
You know, that public standard is kind of already overcome there.
Second, because there's also threats against his personal safety that also crosses that
bar.
So I think that Mr. Ricker here has a, has a very strong case, and I do think he's gonna
win, especially because as they mentioned in the complaint, she's doing this in rallies.
She's doing this in interviews.
She did it on podcasts, she did it on tv.
So they're pointing out this whole little tour that Carrie Lake has done trying to become
famous after her loss.
And that quest for fame is gonna end up costing Carrie Lake greatly when this lawsuit finally
reaches
a conclusion.