2022 Congressional & State Elections

[Bact PhD]

Dec 22, 2022 21:26:46 GMT goldenvalley said:

Do they even realize that or do they understand their whole function is to file fraudulent lawsuits to help election deniers raise money?  

Yes.

[LFC]

Dec 22, 2022 21:26:46 GMT goldenvalley said:

I wish there were some immediate sanction judge could issue for this kind of nonsense.  These election deniers have nothing but suspicion and faulty logic.  Do they even realize that or do they understand their whole function is to file fraudulent lawsuits to help election deniers raise money?  

Kinda' makes you wonder if their crusade against "frivolous lawsuits" was pre-planned with things like this in mind.

[LFC]

Say goodnight, Kari. The last sentence I quoted makes me smile.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson dismissed the lawsuit lodged by unsuccessful gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake Saturday, confirming Katie Hobbs’ election as Arizona’s governor-elect. 

“Every one of Plaintiff’s witnesses — and for that matter, Defendants’ witnesses as well — was asked about any personal knowledge of both intentional misconduct and intentional misconduct directed to impact the 2022 General Election,” he wrote. “Every single witness before the Court disclaimed any personal knowledge of such misconduct. The Court cannot accept speculation or conjecture in place of clear and convincing evidence.”

Thompson, who took extensive notes throughout the two days of trial, ticked through Lake’s witnesses one by one. Some had testified to technological snafus or administrative errors they had witnessed, speculating that the hiccups were enough to pollute the entire election. 

Since Thompson had only let two counts of Lake’s 10-part lawsuit go to trial, much of the testimony was focused on errors by ballot printing machines, which witnesses said produced ballots that could not be read by the tabulators. Even then, multiple Lake witnesses had to admit that the rejected votes would have been duplicated on proper ballot forms that the tabulators could read. 

“It bears mentioning that election workers themselves were attested to by both Plaintiff’s witnesses and the Defendants’ witnesses as being dedicated to performing their role with integrity,” Thompson wrote. “Not perfectly, as no system on this earth is perfect, but more than sufficient to comply with the law and conduct a valid election.”

Thompson will now provide a couple days for Hobbs’ team to file motions to sanction Lake’s lawyers.  

[LFC]

Consequences, bitches. Any lawyer involved in Lake's nonsense deserves to lose their license to practice law.

Lawyers for unsuccessful gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, who have made their name in the cottage industry of seeking to overturn elections for MAGA candidates, are now trying to bat back sanctions after their latest court loss. 

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson dismissed Lake’s lawsuit to overturn her election on Saturday following a two-day trial. 

Lawyers for Maricopa County, joined in their arguments by the team representing Arizona Governor-elect Katie Hobbs (D), are asking the court to sanction both Lake and her lawyers “to impart to them the seriousness of their misuse of the courts to seek to undermine Arizona elections and impugn hardworking elections workers and officials for purely political — not legal — purposes.” 

Lake was represented by Kurt Olsen, who spearheaded attempts to overturn the 2020 election and spoke to Donald Trump on Jan. 6, and Bryan Blehm, who represented the tech company Cyber Ninjas in lawsuits stemming from the infamous partisan audit of Arizona’s 2020 election results. 

Thompson dismissed eight of Lake’s 10 claims off the bat, letting her go to trial on the last two — centered on technical issues with ballot printer machines and the ballot chain of custody — to prove that there was intentional misconduct to throw the election to Hobbs. Lake’s lawyers, who blundered through the trial, failed to turn up enough evidence to convince the court that the election was poisoned. 

“Plaintiff’s claims were also made in bad faith, as demonstrated by her scattershot approach to litigation, her claims’ lack of legal and factual merit, and this action’s place as part of a larger scheme carried out by Plaintiff to spread disinformation about elections and election results in Maricopa County,” lawyers for Maricopa County wrote. “And she has not stopped.” 

Pay up!

Maricopa County is seeking $25,050 in fees to cover the two days of trial, though the lawyers point out that much more work was done outside the couple days of arguments and questioning. Hobbs is asking for $550,210 in lawyer fees, plus another $80,000-plus for the two days of trial work and ballot inspection.

Lake has already vowed to appeal Thompson’s decision. 

[LFC]

F***. The abuse of the courts won't slow down if judges don't stand up against frivolous nonsense like Lake's. On the upside she'll still probably be sewed by Maricopa County for wasting their tax dollars.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson on Tuesday denied motions by Maricopa County and Governor-elect Katie Hobbs to sanction the lawyers of unsuccessful gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake. 

“There is no doubt that each side believes firmly in its position with great conviction,” he wrote, adding that “the fact that plaintiff failed to meet the burden of clear and convincing evidence required” does not “equate to a finding that her claims were, or were not, groundless and presented in bad faith.” 

So if you're insane then feel free to file any suit you wish. "Belief" is all that matters. If you'll excuse me I'm going to file a class action suit against the Jews for murdering Jesus. Hey, I believe it! And SCOTUS should back me because, you know, religion.

[goldenvalley]

Dec 28, 2022 15:34:26 GMT LFC said:

F***. The abuse of the courts won't slow down if judges don't stand up against frivolous nonsense like Lake's. On the upside she'll still probably be sewed by Maricopa County for wasting their tax dollars.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson on Tuesday denied motions by Maricopa County and Governor-elect Katie Hobbs to sanction the lawyers of unsuccessful gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake. 

“There is no doubt that each side believes firmly in its position with great conviction,” he wrote, adding that “the fact that plaintiff failed to meet the burden of clear and convincing evidence required” does not “equate to a finding that her claims were, or were not, groundless and presented in bad faith.” 

So if you're insane then feel free to file any suit you wish. "Belief" is all that matters. If you'll excuse me I'm going to file a class action suit against the Jews for murdering Jesus. Hey, I believe it! And SCOTUS should back me because, you know, religion.

This has always been a problem...anyone can file anything.  Courts are loathe to get into the heads of the litigants to figure out if they are just being litigious or if they really think they have a valid basis for the suit.  Truly it is difficult to get into someone's head and that is why the laws describe vexatious litigants as people who file multiple suits, motions, etc in a specific time span (that's the California version).  They look for a pattern of conduct, not for the political aims of someone or the revenge aims in a single lawsuit.  

[LFC]

Dec 28, 2022 17:24:27 GMT goldenvalley said:

They look for a pattern of conduct, not for the political aims of someone or the revenge aims in a single lawsuit.  

I would agree if it was one frivolous lawsuit after one incident BUT we have seen a massive coordinated assault on the courts of baseless suits all on the same topic. Additionally, Lake was making fraud accusations before the election even occurred. If a pattern must exist with an individual and not across a class of suits then any group can flood the courts with shit just by ensuring that each suit is filed by somebody else. This is, of course, exactly what the Republicans have been doing.

[indy]

Dec 27, 2022 15:18:15 GMT LFC said:

Say goodnight, Kari. The last sentence I quoted makes me smile.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson dismissed the lawsuit lodged by unsuccessful gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake Saturday, confirming Katie Hobbs’ election as Arizona’s governor-elect. 

“Every one of Plaintiff’s witnesses — and for that matter, Defendants’ witnesses as well — was asked about any personal knowledge of both intentional misconduct and intentional misconduct directed to impact the 2022 General Election,” he wrote. “Every single witness before the Court disclaimed any personal knowledge of such misconduct. The Court cannot accept speculation or conjecture in place of clear and convincing evidence.”

Thompson, who took extensive notes throughout the two days of trial, ticked through Lake’s witnesses one by one. Some had testified to technological snafus or administrative errors they had witnessed, speculating that the hiccups were enough to pollute the entire election. 

Since Thompson had only let two counts of Lake’s 10-part lawsuit go to trial, much of the testimony was focused on errors by ballot printing machines, which witnesses said produced ballots that could not be read by the tabulators. Even then, multiple Lake witnesses had to admit that the rejected votes would have been duplicated on proper ballot forms that the tabulators could read. 

“It bears mentioning that election workers themselves were attested to by both Plaintiff’s witnesses and the Defendants’ witnesses as being dedicated to performing their role with integrity,” Thompson wrote. “Not perfectly, as no system on this earth is perfect, but more than sufficient to comply with the law and conduct a valid election.”

Thompson will now provide a couple days for Hobbs’ team to file motions to sanction Lake’s lawyers.  

Lake's lawyers are on the hook for $122,000. The bold name below is by me.

Attorneys for failed gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake ex-Arizona Rep. Mark Finchem have been ordered to pay $122,200 to cover Maricopa County’s legal fees, a federal judge ruled on Friday. Lake and Finchem filed a lawsuit in 2022 when they were running for governor and secretary of state, respectively, asking to prohibit the use of electronic voting machines in the midterm election. The pair wanted election officials to require paper ballots that were to be counted by hand and falsely claimed machines produced inaccurate results. In response, Maricopa County argued Lake and Finchem violated the law by “pursuing frivolous constitutional claims,” U.S. District Court John J. Tuchi wrote in Friday’s order. Tuchi tossed out the lawsuit and granted the county’s request for sanctions against the lawyers. Now, attorneys Kurt Olsen, Andrew Parker and Alan Dershowitz will have to foot the bill.

www.thedailybeast.com/kari-lakes-attorneys-told-to-foot-dollar122k-bill-for-frivolous-election-lawsuit

ETA: Like the first seven pages of the judge's ruling is the judge dealing with Dershowitz whining that he had a very limited role and he should not be included in the sanctions to which the judge essentially responds, well you signed off on all the documents bitch. Fun stuff.

[indy]

One particularly funny bit from the judgement. Bold mine.

Mr. Dershowitz testified he believes he only became aware he might be subject to
sanctions when media reports about the Court’s Sanctions Order named him among
Plaintiffs’ counsel. (Tr. at 42:13–43:19.) He testified that prior to that time, he believed the
“of counsel” designation adequately advised the Court of his limited role as a legal
consultant and delimited his ethical obligations accordingly. (Id. at 23:1–16.) He believed
this role to be distinct from that of “counsel,” who must conduct the reasonable pre-filing
inquiry required by Rule 11. (See id. at 25:11–24.) He testified: “I did not believe that
agreeing to be an ‘of counsel’ legal consultant places any obligation on me to evaluate
factual allegations.” (Doc. 108 at 12 ¶ 4.) He testified he did not rely on specific authority
supporting this use of the “of counsel” designation, but noted he and others have used it on
“many, many briefs” before. (Tr. at 23:1, 26:20–24; see also Doc. 131-1.) He added:

I never familiarized myself with the practice or the traditions of what of
counsel means. I just operated on what I had been doing for almost ten years
in the honest belief that that was the most candid way of communicating the
actual role that I was intending to play and did play.

[andydp]

So you act as “of counsel” for ten years and didn’t know the actual responsibility inherent of that term ?

[indy]

Apparently that's how he rolled. It's not like lawyers need to be familiar with what written words mean on signed documents, especially on the ones they sign themselves.

[indy]

The judge also noted how frequently Lake (as well as the my pillow guy) mentioned that 'a liberal democrat' like Dershowitz was counsel for the suit, using it to add heft to the claims, which Dershowitz did not seem to make any effort to correct. Selling your reputation to frivolous legal claims while simultaneously trying to shield yourself from any fallout didn't seem to sit too well with the judge.

[andydp]

Jul 15, 2023 13:17:31 GMT indy said:

Apparently that's how he rolled. It's not like lawyers need to be familiar with what written words mean on signed documents, especially on the ones they sign themselves.

I learned early in military career if you sign a document you own it. (Typos included)

[jackd]

Signing a pleading as "of counsel" seems quite unusual to me. Many attorneys will affiliate with a firm as "of counsel" but that does not cause them to be treated as partners in matters where the firm becomes liable.

[indy]

It is a good question as to why he was willing to sign the pleadings? Clearly Lake and the rest wanted him to because of course it was all free publicity for them.

Rule 11 is clear: "By presenting to the court a pleading, written motion, or other paper—whether by signing, filing, submitting, or later advocating it—an attorney or unrepresented party certifies that to the best of the person's knowledge, information, and belief, formed after an inquiry reasonable under the circumstances..."

He signed the pleading and therefore he was making a representation to the court. I don't see an allowance for "consultants on constitutional questions". Anybody who signs the pleading, attorney or not, counsel or 'of counsel' is on the hook.

[goldenvalley]

I think Dersh lost whatever integrity he might have had and now grifts on wingnuts by allowing the use of his name as a “liberal”. Probably charged a consulting fee for it. The idiots filing these papers don’t know anything about court rules. They just think they’re owning the libs by having his name on the pleadings and motions.

It’s been so long that I don’t even remember why he was notable or famous. Neither does he.

[indy]

Hard to tell---at least for me---what is going on with him. You would think he has plenty of money but who knows? I'm sure he must have some real concerns about 'voting integrity' (certainly I have some concerns about the security of electronic voting machines but as long as there are paper ballots that undergo random audits they are somewhat alleviated) but this suit was just nuts and deserved the sanctions.