Kari Lake’s husband Jeff Halperin submitted a Motion to Dismiss as a sanction on Monday in the defamation lawsuit that Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer filed against the couple over Lake’s statements about election fraud. Halperin cited recently discovered hostile statements that Richer made against Lake, such as that he wanted to “make life hell for Kari.” Lake agreed in April to work out settlement negotiations herself with Richer, since the cost of a trial would cost far more than settling.
In his June 2023 complaint, Richer accused Lake of defamation for stating that he inserted 300,000 additional ballots into the 2022 election at Runbeck Election Services, Maricopa County’s third party ballot processing vendor, and that he was responsible for intentionally printing misconfigured ballots.
Halperin’s motion began by listing the offensive statements Richer made, which were obtained and published by The Gateway Pundit. He made the comment about making Lake’s life hell in March 2023 when he was contemplating a run for the U.S. Senate.
Halperin’s argument focused on the fact that Richer's claims of harm began before Lake’s statements. “This Maricopa County official was the subject of criticism, ridicule, and even death threats long before Lake uttered a single word about him,” he said.
Many thought Richer should have recused himself from overseeing the Senate election due to his hostility towards Lake and her concerns that he had rigged the previous election against her. “Reasonable people might question whether Richer’s antipathy towards Lake may have undermined the democratic process in the close race for U.S. Senate between Lake and Rueben Gallego,” the motion said.
Halperin noted that Richer’s attorneys are from the Protect Democracy Project, which “files defamation lawsuits to protect democracy,” something that is “financially lucrative.”
Halperin listed three reasons why the lawsuit should be dismissed. First, “Richer violated this Court’s May 30, 2024 order by failing to timely disclose ‘a computation and measure of each category of damages.’’
Second, Halperin said Richer “knowingly failed to disclose the existence of Maricopa County’s sophisticated data mining operation — paid for by taxpayers — that monitors news stories…” That team was paid by taxpayers to compile information related to his lawsuit, AZ Free News reported in March. “Records reveal that Richer has regularly tasked staff with tracking a wide variety of media reports and other online content on topics of personal political interest to Richer, unrelated to the statutory duties of the recorder’s office,” the news site said.
Halperin said evidence of this media team was only discovered after “it was inadvertently sent to Richer’s personal Gmail account.” The email was headlined “VIP – Media Summary” and “assessed three measures of public sentiment for Richer: positive, neutral, and negative. It analyzed a Tweet by Lake on August 21, 2023. Lake’s Tweet was about this lawsuit and correlated with an ‘uptick’ in negative sentiment for Richer. The negative sentiment ‘subsided’ by August 24, 2023.”
Halperin said, “This led to the discovery of hundreds of similar reports that are damaging and unfavorable to Richer because they show Richer to be his own worst enemy under the public eye. Richer is drawn to polarizing topics like a moth to the flame. He then invites disdain by attacking others or becoming defensive in the process. Richer knew of these reports and had access to them.”
Richer failed to provide information regarding the media team to Lake and Halperin as required by Rule 26.1(a)(9) of the Arizona Rules of Civil Procedure, Halperin asserted.
EZAZ’s Merissa Hamilton, who asked Richer’s office for public records regarding the media team, told The Arizona Sun Times that the team had a plan on how to respond to The Sun Times; they would enlist a reporter from The Washington Times to issue a fact check.
Halperin said he served a subpoena on Maricopa County to obtain information about the media team, but the county responded with a Motion to Quash last month.
Third, Halperin said Richer deleted his X account after the election, thwarting Halperin’s request for production seeking social media posts Richer had made. “Any potentially relevant discovery in Richer’s X account is lost,” Halperin said. “Richer is a licensed Arizona attorney. He knows the implications of destroying relevant evidence. But he did it anyway. He is unrepentant and his conduct irredeemable.”
Halperin argued that Richer cannot prove that Lake was responsible for damage to his reputation, since Richer was already under fire from the botched election in 2020, due to his fighting against election integrity investigations.
“Richer has been a polarizing figure since his role in the 2021 Maricopa County ‘Cyber Ninja’ audit, during which he was publicly accused of ‘sabotaging’ ballots and importing ‘bogus’ ballots,” Halperin said. “Throughout 2021 and 2022, Richer clashed with fellow Republicans, including President-elect Donald Trump.”
Additionally, in 2021, “Richer penned a 38-page ‘Dear Arizona Republicans’ letter in which he complained he had been defamed, ridiculed, harassed, cast out of his own party, and subject to death threats.”
Despite those previous hostile encounters, Richer’s lawsuit is “based on statements Lake made from January 2023 to June 2023.” Richer blamed Lake for death threats, rude confrontations, the erosion of his physical and mental health, and a decrease in Republican donors.
Halperin laid out how Richer’s lawsuit contained the same complaints that he made in his Dear Arizona Republicans letter. He said he received death threats, “harassing emails and social media messages,” had his car windshield banged on, was “screamed at,” and told to return to Utah.
Halperin discussed how Richer went after Trump and attacked him. “Richer’s decision to clash with Trump predictably ‘provoke[d] hostility” from Trump supporters. Unsurprisingly, this had a pernicious effect on Richer’s reputation and standing with Trump supporters. Richer admitted as much in 2021 in a series of despondent, late-night Tweets in E. E. Cummings-style prose.”
Also occurring prior to Lake’s 2023 remarks was a statement issued by the Arizona Freedom Caucus denouncing alleged death threats Richer received regarding his handling of the 2022 election. Halperin said, “Richer inexcusably attempted to establish a false correlation between Lake’s 2023 statements and death threats against Richer in 2021 and 2022.”
In his lawsuit, Richer alleged that the “U.S. Department of Justice has prosecuted at least one person who credibly threatened Richer’s life.” Halperin said, “Richer finally admitted in discovery that Paragraph 164 referred to a death threat made before Lake’s statements.”
Halperin explained why Lake agreed to settle with Richer. “Defendants defaulted intentionally to smoke out Richer’s inability to prove any damages,” he said. “The practice is expressly permitted under Arizona law. … The defendant retains the right ‘to cross-examine and even present counterproof’ at a damages hearing.”
He said the strategic default also benefited them by “depriv[ing] Richer and Protect Democracy Project of their desired battlefield terrain: protracted, expensive, and invasive discovery that would, among other things, take Lake off the campaign trail and drain her financial resources during the Senate race.”
Halperin asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit against him with prejudice so it cannot be filed again. He concluded, “For Richer, the harshest of sanctions is not merely justified. It is imperative.”