by Mark Schwendau
The Protect Democracy Project is backing a defamation lawsuit by Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer filed against former Arizona 2022 gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and her campaign, the Save Arizona Fund nonprofit. Richer’s suit alleges “harmful falsities to further their own agenda–and line their own pockets–at Richer’s expense.”
The Protect Democracy Project states on its website the following:
“Protect Democracy Project is a cross-ideological nonprofit group dedicated to defeating the authoritarian threat, building more resilient democratic institutions, and protecting our freedom and liberal democracy. Our experts and advocates use litigation, legislative and communications strategies, technology, research, and analysis to stand up for free and fair elections, the rule of law, fact-based debate, and a better democracy for future generations.”
The only problem is their website also states they are non-partisan, but that claim is questionable, as per The National Pulse.
The Constitution’s First Amendment gives Americans the right to criticize government officials openly. This baseless lawsuit is an unconstitutional assault on free speech. Furthermore, public figures do not have the right to sue constituents critical of their job performance as elected public officials. They do not have the right to use taxpayer dollars to engage in defamation litigation. It appears Richer has been offered a workaround to his situation by the Protect Democracy Project.
Richer’s lawsuit claims Kari Lake has used her social media platforms, interviews, and public appearances to defame Richer by criticizing Maricopa County’s handling of the 2022 election by implicating him in machine and printer failures on election day and early ballots cast with no chain of custody. However, all three of Lake’s allegations have merit.
“Since the November 2022 election, Defendants have repeatedly and falsely accused Richer of causing Lake’s electoral defeat, including by claiming that Richer–a registered Republican– sabotaged the election to prevent Republican candidates, including Lake, from winning,” stated the filing.
Richer, who oversaw early voting, founded and operated the Pro-Democracy Republicans PAC, a dark money PAC allegedly aiming to eliminate candidates with a MAGA agenda. Also, Maricopa County Chairman Bill Gates, who oversaw the Election Day operations, openly railed against Trump-Endorsed candidates, calling their primary election wins a “catastrophe,” saying, “I think they are electable, which is frightening.” Together, these two RINO Republicans did an ad by Never-Trump groups to discredit auditors of Maricopa County’s 2020 election and attack supporters of the audit and Trump-Endorsed Republican candidates.
“These losers are still in power in Arizona and running our elections – Richer and Gates.”
Kari Lake responded to the new lawsuit, calling Richer a “jackass” who reminds her of serial liar Adam Schiff. “Trump won in a landslide & so did I. Everyone knows it,” she added.
Meanwhile, David Becker, a far-left operative who founded the Soros-funded ERIC system, also commented, praising Richer for his lawsuit.
Others, though, wondered aloud on Twitter – Lake might inadvertently get her day in court when she enters discovery findings against Richer.
As The Washington Post noted, “Public officials generally face a steep challenge in trying to prove defamation cases. But Richer and an attorney representing him from Protect Democracy, which describes itself as a “nonpartisan, anti-authoritarianism group,” said reams of public information show a disregard for the truth and, in their view, malice.”
Considering the latest news, a Maricopa County superior court judge has refused to dismiss Kari Lake’s public records request for access to ballot affidavit envelopes; perhaps the tide is about to turn!
Copyright © 2023 by Mark S. Schwendau
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Mark S. Schwendau is a retired technology professor who has always had a sideline in news-editorial writing where his byline has been, “Bringing little known news to people who simply want to know the truth.” He is a Christian conservative who God cast to be a realist. His website is www.IDrawIWrite.Tech.
The Deep State will weaponize EVERYONE against her to stop the truth from coming out.
Not sure when the truth became defamation, but here we are. Ronald Harms is correct. They are all the communists McCarthy warned us about.
Not the Speaker of the House McCarthy. He is a deep state COMMUNIST RINO that hates America’s guts.
“They’re (Communists) here . .”
Lake is right…but we’re allowing the Left to censor us in many ways. This suit is illegitimate because the truth is its own defense, but since the Left gets to designate what is Truth…