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Lake had filed a lawsuit alleging voter fraud and challenging
the counting and certification of the November electoral contest
in a bid to be declared the winner despite a lack of evidence.
The suit was rejected by the Superior Court in Maricopa County
on Saturday.
On Monday, Hobbs and Maricopa County deputy attorney asked the
court to sanction Lake and her attorneys, alleging that Lake had
filed a "groundless" lawsuit for a "frivolous pursuit."
Sanctions are usually in the form of a financial penalty imposed
by a judge for violation of a court rule or misconduct. Hobbs
had asked the court to award her over $600,000 to compensate for
fees and expenses accrued in defending against Lake's lawsuit.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson said in
Tuesday's ruling that Lake's claims in the lawsuit were not
groundless.
"The fact that plaintiff (Lake) failed to meet the burden of
clear and convincing evidence ... does not equate to a finding
that her claims were, or were not, groundless and presented in
bad faith," Thomson wrote in the judgment.
The lawsuit had targeted Hobbs, who is currently Arizona's
secretary of state and becomes governor next week, along with
top officials in Maricopa County. Lake's suit claimed "hundreds
of thousands of illegal ballots infected the election" in
Maricopa, the state's most populous county.
Lake, a former television news anchor, was one of the most
high-profile Republican candidates in the midterm elections to
embrace former Republican President Donald Trump's false claims
of voter fraud in 2020.
She lost the governor's race to Hobbs but refused to concede and
continued making unconfirmed claims about election improprieties
on her Twitter feed.
Lake was one of the most prominent of the Trump-aligned
Republican candidates who lost battleground state races in the
midterm elections.
(Reporting by Ismail Shakil; Editing by Aurora Ellis)
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