A defamation lawsuit filed by Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer against Arizona Republican Kari Lake, which lasted more than a year, has been settled, an attorney representing Lake confirmed to Newsweek on Sunday via email.
Richer said in a text message Sunday that “both sides are satisfied with the result,” according to The Washington Post.
“The details of the settlement are confidential, according to two people familiar with the terms, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a private settlement,” the newspaper reported on Sunday.
Richer, a Republican elected as the recorder for Arizona’s largest county in 2020, has been outspoken against election denialism. He filed a lawsuit alleging that Lake, her 2022 Arizona gubernatorial campaign, and an affiliated nonprofit group repeatedly and falsely accused him of actions that contributed to Lake’s election loss.
In 2022, Lake ran unsuccessfully for governor of Arizona, losing by more than 17,000 votes against her Democratic opponent, Katie Hobbs. The former television news anchor refused to acknowledge her loss and has since been involved in several court challenges regarding the election.
She is also a vocal supporter of President-elect Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him via widespread voter fraud despite there being no evidence. Meanwhile, some of her supporters have resurfaced election fraud claims following her 2024 U.S. Senate loss to Representative Ruben Gallego.
Newsweek has reached out to Richer and Richer’s attorney Daniel Maynard for comment via email on Sunday evening.
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Richer’s defamation case was filed after Lake repeatedly claimed that Richer and others printed the 2022 ballots incorrectly, “so that the tabulators would jam all day long.” There is no evidence of Richer doing this.
Richer’s attorney wrote in the original complaint, filed back on June 22, 2023, “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.”
The case sought to remedy Lake’s public comments against Richer following her 2022 loss. In March, Richer said due to Lake’s and co-defendants’ actions, “my family and I have faced an endless barrage of threats— including calls for our execution—I have lost close personal relationships, and I have had my reputation irreparably damaged.”
In March, Lake did not defend her comments against Richer in court but instead asked the court to proceed with a default judgment hearing to decide if damages were owed to Richer and, if so, how much.
Nonprofit group Protect Democracy, which filed the lawsuit on behalf of Richer, said in a release shortly after, that the default judgment request meant that Lake and co-defendants were “effectively conceding that they acted with ‘actual malice’ when spreading lies about Mr. Richer.”
In July, Richer’s reelection campaign ended after he lost the GOP primary to Arizona state Representative Justin Heap, a candidate endorsed by Lake.
