Kari Lake's 'cheesy' new book could cost her big in upcoming defamation trial: columnist

Failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake's new book is a "cheesy ego trip," writes Arizona Republic columnist Laurie Roberts in a scathing analysis published on Tuesday.

But it's more than that, she argued: it's also an epic self-own that could add ammunition to a lawsuit that was just filed against her.

"If you are Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer’s lawyers, you probably already have it — annotated and ready for use in your lawsuit against the nation’s second sorest loser. (Surely, you can figure out who takes top honors in that category.)" wrote Roberts. "Richer sued Lake last week for defamation, apparently deciding it was about time that someone stood up to Lake, who has built a national following based in large part of her accusations that Richer is a criminal."

Roberts then goes over details in the book that she says could be particularly troubling for Lake in a defamation trial.

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"Over and over, Lake has recounted the many fantastical ways Richer and his apparent partner in crime, Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates, set out to 'sabotage Election Day' and steal her gubernatorial glory," wrote Roberts. "Most specifically, when they (supposedly) slipped 300,000 phony ballots into the vote count and when they (supposedly) intentionally rigged Election Day printers to spit out ballots that couldn’t be counted. 'This is how they sabotaged Election Day in Arizona,' she has repeatedly charged in press conferences, on social media, to right-wing media — basically to anyone who would listen."

In reality, her various claims about fake ballots and suppression of her voters have been repeatedly shot down by courts.

Lake's book, Roberts notes, proclaims her to be "the lawful governor of Arizona" and portrays Richer and Maricopa County Recorder Bill Gates "as a either mobsters or criminals working for a drug cartel" — none of which is going to help her in a defamation case.

This comes after a report that Lake has practically moved into former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort full-time, and sources near her suspect she is angling for a position as his running mate — though she publicly denies any plans for this.