The Arizona Republican Party and its lawyers are being forced to pay over $18,000 in legal fees for one of its lawsuits in Maricopa County challenging President Biden’s 2020 election victory.
In a Friday decision, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge John Hannah Jr. ruled that the state GOP‘s arguments provided “flimsy excuses for a lawsuit,” one of several failed lawsuits seeking to overturn the election, after addressing various issues with the plaintiff’s case in a 10-page filing.
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The party sought an audit of a sampling of ballots with its lawsuit, claiming that it wanted to assess whether the county’s voting machines had been hacked, while Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs argued it was about delaying certification of the results and “not the adjudication of good faith claims.”
“The plaintiff is effectively admitting that the suit was brought primarily for an improper purpose,” Hannah said. “It is conceding that the method of sampling ballots for the hand count audit is a minor procedural requirement, not a necessary step toward a fair election. It is saying that it filed this lawsuit for political reasons. ‘Public mistrust’ is a political issue, not a legal or factual basis for litigation.”
The plaintiff was ordered to pay $18,237.59 in attorneys’ fees in response to a request by Hobbs, which the judge found to be “reasonable and appropriate.”
Jack Wilenchik, an attorney for the Arizona GOP, said in a statement that the judge’s reasoning represented a “sorely disrespectful to the views of the many Americans whom I am proud to represent.” He added that the order “encourages public distrust in the government for being openly hostile to them.”
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The Arizona GOP did not immediately respond to the Washington Examiner‘s request for comment on the matter.
Results from two of the county election official’s forensic audits found there was no evidence of voting machines compromised during the election and further affirmed the legitimacy of the results from Nov. 3.
Still, Arizona Republicans in control of the state Senate are moving forward with an audit of the election results in Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix.
Senate President Karen Fann said last week she had narrowed the search for a firm to do a full audit of the county’s 2020 election, which tabulated 2.1 million ballots.
