Judge Demands Kari Lake Stop Stalling And Start Complying With Court’s Demands

Months after Kari Lake essentially admitted defeat in the defamation lawsuit she’s facing from Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, she is STILL stalling the case by refusing to comply with discovery demands. Even though she conceded the liability part, the damages must still be determined at a trial, which means that she legally has to comply with discovery, but she continues to refuse to do so. But the court appears to be losing patience with her as they demand that she turn over documents. Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins explains what’s happening.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

Many months ago, KA Lake actually conceded liability in a defamation lawsuit that was filed against her by a man named Steven Richer. Now, Mr. Richer is a Republican. He is the Maricopa, Arizona County recorder. So he helps run the elections in Maricopa County. And following her humiliating defeat in the 2022 Gubernatorial race in Arizona, Kari Lake immediately went out there into the conservative media atmosphere, telling everybody that Mr. Ricker is the one who gave us bad printers in Maricopa County. And then the ballots were all messed up. And then, ah, he stole the election from me, which of course was completely untrue. None of that happened, but she repeated that lie so frequently that it definitely negatively impacted Mr. Riker's life. And he ended up filing a defamation lawsuit against her last year. But when Carrie Lake decided she was gonna run for the Senate and she became the prevailing nominee, she didn't want this whole defamation lawsuit to kind of derail her campaign, right?

I mean, that's gonna make it look really bad if while you're fighting for your political life, the public is constantly reminded about what a liar and a freak you are. So again, couple months ago, I think it was March or April, she actually went ahead and conceded the liability. But the case still has to go to trial to determine the damages that she owes Mr. Ricker. And that means the cases in the discovery phase. But according to the court itself, Carrie Lake and her husband have decided to just not participate. They're not turning over the discovery documents that Ricker and his legal team have been requesting for months. And the judge is starting to get a little off. Rightfully so. The judge said this, the court directed the parties to narrow the issues with respect to document production. They have done the opposite. Instead of reasonably tailoring the request, plaintiff has expanded them.

Instead of producing documents on subjects, the court is already deemed relevant. Defendant repeats unwarranted objections. So the judge is getting mad, but if you'll notice what I said there, he's actually getting mad at both sides because according to the judge, and according to Carrie Lake's lawyer, Mr. Ricker is asking for things that he shouldn't be asking for. And to that I disagree. Mr. Ricker and his legal team, of course, are trying to get their hands on all of these documents from Lake and the organizations that she worked with, her staffers, the nonprofit. She started to find out what they were saying about her media appearances and the lies that she was spreading. Because if they

Determined, if they discussed this in text messages or emails or any other form of communication that her lies were making her more popular, which they did, then that is going to increase the damages that Mr. Ricker has owed. But Lake and her husband and their lawyers are arguing, no, no, no. Some of these, you know, it's just outta the scope, right? I mean, you can't have 'em. You're asking for too much stuff. And even the judge seems to be like, Hey, you're asking for too much. No, he's not. Part of the defamation lawsuit process is proving not only that the other party was making these claims that they knew were false. You know, you gotta have the intent, you gotta have all that. But the other part of it, and this is where more damages come in, is if you can prove that the other party was spreading these lies to basically enrich themselves. And that doesn't always mean financially enriching themselves.