Kari Lake Files Appeal In Dismissal Of Arizona Election Lawsuit

Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake appealed a Maricopa County judge’s decision Tuesday to dismiss her lawsuit, which challenged her defeat against Democratic Governor-elect Katie Hobbs.

Lake filed a notice of appeal in the Arizona Superior Court, which would contest two counts heard in court in a two-day trial last week and eight others initially dismissed by Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson. The dismissal of two counts was related to allegations of intentional misconduct from malfunctioning ballot printers and a failure to follow ballot chain-of-custody procedures.

The Hill reported Lake’s filing said she would “seek direct review by the Arizona Supreme Court.”

Lake told former president Donald Trump’s adviser Steve Bannon on his “War Room” show that she plans to file her appeal this week.

“I am standing up for the people of this state, the people who were done wrong on Election Day, and the millions of people who live outside of Maricopa County, whose vote was watered down by this bogus election in Maricopa County,” Lake said in an appearance on Stephen Bannon’s “War Room” podcast.

.@KariLake: "I am standing up for the people of this state. The people who were done wrong on Election Day and the millions of people who live outside of Maricopa County, whose vote was watered down by this bogus election in Maricopa County." pic.twitter.com/sFHQCx9f9Y

— Kari Lake (@KariLake) December 27, 2022

Maricopa County, which includes the capital of Phoenix and is Arizona’s most populous county, had notable problems during the November 8 election, including printer and tabulation machine-related issues in at least 70 of the county’s 223 polling locations.

Lake claims there were tabulator breakdowns at over 59% of the voting centers within the county on Election Day.

Lake’s suit claimed thousands of Republican voters were disenfranchised, arguing “hundreds of thousands of illegal ballots infected the election in Maricopa County.”

However, the results showed that Lake lost the contest by roughly 17,000 votes despite her allegations.

Lake, a former journalist who prioritized election integrity as a candidate, filed her appeal after a judge issued a ruling earlier on Tuesday to deny sanctions against her brought by Hobbs for seeking to overturn the results of last month’s governor’s race.

Hobbs and Maricopa County filed motions on Monday for sanctions against Lake and her attorneys, which may amount to nearly $700,000 in penalties to cover the attorneys’ fees and costs, according to an estimate from the AZ Law blog.

Most of that money could go to Marc Elias, who is well known as the lawyer who directed funding from Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and Democratic National Committee that went toward British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s now-discredited anti-Trump dossier.

The judge explained that his dismissal of Lake’s case does not equate to determining that Lake’s claims were “groundless and presented in bad faith.”

“Any legal decision must be based on the law and facts rather than subjective beliefs or partisan opinions, no matter how strongly held,” he added.

Hobbs, who is currently Arizona’s secretary of state, is set to be inaugurated as governor on January 5.

Daniel Chaitin contributed to this report.

Elon Musk On Big Tech Censorship: ‘Google Frequently Makes Links Disappear’

Twitter CEO Elon Musk said in response to the latest release of “The Twitter Files” Tuesday that Twitter was far from the only big tech company that engages in online censorship, going as far as to say that Google makes links disappear on their search engine.

Musk made the remarks in response to a tweet from left-wing journalist Glenn Greenwald, who wrote: “For the crime of reporting that the US Security State agencies are heavily involved in Big Tech’s censorship regime, and for confessing that he found this deeply disturbing, liberals have spent a full week saying that @mtaibbi has mental health problems and needs therapy.”

Included in Greenwald’s tweet was a screenshot of one of journalist Matt Taibbi’s Twitter Files threads.

“The government was in constant contact not just with Twitter but with virtually every major tech firm,” Taibbi said. “These included Facebook, Microsoft, Verizon, Reddit, even Pinterest, and many others. Industry players also held regular meetings without government.”

Musk responded, “Most people don’t appreciate the significance of the point Matt was making: *Every* social media company is engaged in heavy censorship, with significant involvement of and, at times, explicit direction of the government.”

“Google frequently makes links disappear, for example,” Musk added.

Most people don’t appreciate the significance of the point Matt was making:

*Every* social media company is engaged in heavy censorship, with significant involvement of and, at times, explicit direction of the government.

Google frequently makes links disappear, for example.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 27, 2022

“When Dems controlled both houses of Congress and the WH (and Exec Branch), they repeatedly summoned Big Tech CEOs and openly and explicitly threatened them: if you don’t *censor more*, you will be punished,” Greenwald responded.

Musk agreed, writing: “Exactly.”

Taibbi said that the State Department, Department of Defense, and Central Intelligence Agency were also involved in contacting the platform about potential foreign propaganda on the platform.

Internal company emails showed that FBI agent Elvis Chan asked Twitter executives if he could invite an “OGA” — Other Government Agency — to an upcoming conference.

The email referred to a Twitter employee, whose name was redacted, and said that people from the employee’s “former employer,” which a Twitter executive acknowledged meant the CIA, were specifically inquiring about the invitation.

The new Twitter Files release also showed that FBI officials helped put the company in contact with local law enforcement to deal with issues.

Taibbi said that the FBI was “clearly tailoring” its searches on the platform to look for potential content violations that Twitter could take action on.

Even ex-FBI lawyer Jim Baker, who was involved in a lot of controversy surrounding his involvement in different investigations into former President Donald Trump, thought that the FBI’s actions were strange.

“Odd that they are searching for violations of our policies,” Baker said in an email.

Related: Twitter Was In Contact With Multiple Gov Agencies; Ex-FBI Lawyer Surprised By FBI’s Actions; Feds Sought Action On Foreign Narratives On Ukraine, COVID