Kari Lake could soon meet the same fate as Rudy Giuliani after her latest court loss, according to a columnist in her home state.
A judge ruled last week that the failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate does not have a First Amendment right to call Maricopa County recorder Stephen Richer a criminal, and she must now prove her claims that he intentionally sabotaged last year's election — or get slapped with a multimillion-dollar penalty for defamation, reported the Arizona Republic.
"I picture Lake, waking up in a cold sweat as she channels her inner Rudy Giuliani," wrote columnist Laurie Roberts. "Giuliani — once respected as 'America’s mayor' until he became Donald Trump’s errand boy — was recently hit with a $148 million jury verdict after a judge found he defamed a pair of Georgia poll workers."
Giuliani accused election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss of fraud leading to Trump's election loss, which then resulted in a wave of terror against the mother-daughter pair, and Roberts called out Lake for keeping up her own baseless claims against Richer to fire up her supporters and raise donations.
"Lake has asked that [Richer's defamation] lawsuit be dismissed, claiming Richer has no right to try to hold her accountable, no matter how many death threats he and his family must endure," Roberts wrote. "But Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Jay Adleman disagreed, rejecting her lawyers’ claim that her accusations of sabotage were 'mere rhetorical hyperbole.'"
The judge ruled that Lake must prove her claims were factual, and he found that Richer may be able to prove "actual malice" if the MAGA Republican cannot back up her assertions about him.
ALSO READ: Big Oil just gifted us a lump of coal
"[That's] another way of saying Kari Lake is in deep, deep trouble," Roberts wrote. "Lake has opened her big mouth to accuse Richer of committing crimes. Repeatedly. Now she’ll have to prove it."
Another judge has already rejected her claim that Richer added 300,000 phony ballots to the vote total, and Roberts said she'll have a hard time proving that he intentionally tampered with ballots because he has nothing to do with Election Day voting.
"The judge’s ruling means that Richer will get his day in court," the columnist wrote. "And that Lake will get hers as well — to back up her incendiary claims with actual proof."
