Federal judge sanctions Lake and Finchem lawyers

December 3, 2022 FA8Dd 0 Comments

Of The Washington Job article:

The outcome in Cochise County unfolded as a federal judge, also on Thursday afternoon, sanctioned attorneys for Kari Lake and Mark Finchem, the unsuccessful GOP nominees for governor and secretary of state, respectively. Taken together, the orders show how judges disdain efforts to politicize ministerial roles and undermine election administration.

Federal Judge John Tuchi of the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona wrote that the penalties “would send a clear signal that the Court will not condone litigants…promoting false narratives that baselessly undermine public trust. at a time of growing misinformation and distrust”. in the democratic process. …

Tuchi, who was appointed to the federal bench in 2013 by President Barack Obama, felt that paying attorney fees for Maricopa County was an appropriate sanction because the county and its attorneys had to “spend time and resources to defend this frivolous lawsuit rather than to prepare for the elections on which the plaintiffs’ claims have raised a cloud of dust.

Lawyers are particularly reluctant to be disciplined themselves, especially by a federal judge and under Rule 11…because it may prevent them from practicing in other jurisdictions where they are generally not admitted. It’s basically a black mark on their professional record that follows them the rest of their careers. The specific lawyers sanctioned are not named, but according to the Job article, one of them listed as attorney for Lake and Finchem is Alan Dershowitz. Lake, Finchem and Dershowitz could not be reached for comment, according to the Job.

Tuchi was quite acerbic in her decision:

[A]Although the Court does not find that the Plaintiffs acted appropriately in this case, far from it, the Court concludes that sanctions are only justified against the Plaintiffs’ lawyer, who signed and filed the incriminating documents. Sanctioning plaintiffs’ counsel here is not letting plaintiffs off the hook. This is to penalize the specific conduct of an attorney with the larger purpose of deterring similar baseless filings initiated by anyone, whether an attorney or not. …

The Court shares the concerns expressed by other federal courts about the misuse of the court system to cast unfounded doubt about the electoral process in a manner demonstrably consistent with plaintiffs’ political objectives…

Imposing sanctions in this case is not ignoring the importance of putting procedures in place to ensure the security and reliability of our elections. It is clear that the Court will not tolerate litigants ignoring the steps Arizona has already taken to this end and promoting false narratives that baselessly undermine public trust at a time of growing misinformation and distrust in the regard to the democratic process. This is to send a message to those who may file similar baseless lawsuits in the future.

The courts are clearly fed up with this nonsense.

Kari Lake refuses to ‘back down’ in Arizona, then quickly heads for Mar-a-Lago woo trump