Former President Donald Trump’s bond has been reduced to $175 million in his civil fraud trial.
Read MoreBond in Trump’s Civil Fraud Case Reduced to $175 Million from $464 Million
Tag: appeal
Arizona Supreme Court Hears Oral Arguments from Arizona Republican Party Appealing Sanctions over Election Lawsuit, Grills Opposing Attorney
The Arizona Supreme Court heard oral arguments last week from the Arizona Republican Party (AZGOP) and opposing litigant Secretary of State (AZSOS) over lower courts awarding sanctions against the AZGOP for filing a “groundless” lawsuit “in bad faith.” The AZGOP sued Arizona officials immediately after the 2020 election for conducting a post-election audit that the AZGOP contended did not comply with the law. The AZGOP said the law required the audit to be conducted at the precinct level, but the audit was conducted at the voting center level according to the state’s Election Procedures Manual (EPG), which the AZGOP claimed contradicted state law.
The AZGOP said A.R.S. § 16-602 requires precinct-level audits. The relevant part of that statute, (B)(1), provides, “ At least two percent of the precincts in that county, or two precincts, whichever is greater, shall be selected at random from a pool consisting of every precinct in that county.” In contrast, the EPM states that in counties which utilize vote centers, vote centers will be used for the audits.
Read MoreNew Brief Filed in Kari Lake’s Election Challenge Alleges Maricopa County ‘Lied’ About the 2022 Logic and Accuracy Testing and ‘A Plan to Rig the Election’
Kari Lake filed a reply brief in her election case appeal with the Arizona Court of Appeals on Tuesday. It accused Maricopa County of rigging the 2022 election, and said the county admitted wrongdoing in its answering brief. Her appeal is asking to overturn the lower court’s ruling rejecting her Rule 60(b) motion, which asked to consider new evidence that had arisen since the trial. A Rule 60(b) motion asks the court for relief from an entry or judgment, which the trial court refused to grant after her trial.
Drafted by attorney Bryan Blehm and signed also by Lake’s attorney Kurt Olsen, the summary in the introduction stated, “In its Answering Brief, Maricopa makes demonstrably false or misleading arguments to distract the Court from the evidence and admissions showing that Maricopa blatantly violated Arizona election laws, falsely certified it conducted L&A testing on October 11, 2022, and apparently rigged the November 2022 Election to fail on Election Day.”
Read MoreAbe Hamadeh Files Opening Brief with Arizona Court of Appeals as New Information Comes Out About Voter Registrations Changed to Other Counties
Abe Hamadeh filed his opening brief with the Arizona Court of Appeals last week, after Mohave Superior Court Judge Lee Jantzen refused to grant him a new trial. Hamadeh requested the trial after discovering that then-Secretary of State Katie Hobbs withheld evidence from him before his trial regarding undervotes, votes not counted that resulted in narrowing Democrat Kris Mayes’ lead in the attorney general’s race to only 280 votes.
Much of Hamadeh’s brief also challenged the refusal of Maricopa County to allow him to examine provisional ballots. Over 9,000 provisional ballots have not been counted in his race. Many of them were cast by voters who found their voter registration mysteriously changed to another county. On Thursday, Hamadeh posted a chart on X showing how Maricopa and Pima Counties had a strikingly large number of provisional ballots.
Read MoreKari Lake Files Opening Brief with Arizona Court of Appeals in Election Lawsuit Containing New Evidence and Alleging Crimes
Kari Lake’s appeal of the second dismissal of her lawsuit by the trial court judge is winding its way back up through the courts.
Read MoreKari Lake Requests Transfer of Her Appeal Directly to the Arizona Supreme Court Due to ‘Extraordinary New Evidence’
Kari Lake filed a Notice of Appeal in May with the Arizona Court of Appeals after a trial court judge ruled against her election challenge in a remanded trial. However, due to new circumstances, she is now asking the Arizona Supreme Court to bypass the appeals court and take the case instead.
Read MoreJudge Denies Abe Hamadeh’s Request for a New Trial, Says Only ‘Six Votes’ Would Have Been Different
Mohave County Superior Court Judge Lee F. Jantzen denied Abe Hamadeh’s request for a new trial in his election contest over the attorney general’s race on Friday, issuing his opinion with the reasoning on Monday. He said “the evidence showed that only about six votes difference would have been found after reviewing the numerous undercounted ballots.”
Read MoreJudge Denies Abe Hamadeh’s Request for a New Trial Despite 280-Vote Difference
Almost two months after hearing oral arguments to determine whether Abe Hamadeh should be awarded a new trial in his election contest, Mohave County Superior Court Judge Lee F. Jantzen denied the request on Friday. Hamadeh’s legal team had requested the retrial based on discovering evidence that was withheld from them during the first trial; “undervotes” discovered in Pinal County that were erroneously not counted. The new votes shrunk Kris Mayes’ lead to only 280 votes. It is the closest statewide race in Arizona history.
Jantzen said in the short ruling that he will be issuing his full reasoning behind the decision on Monday by noon, stating that it was a “close call in a close contest.” Hamadeh responded in a statement, “[W]e believe the situation is very simple: the contest was not as close as it stands now. If all legal votes are counted, I win this race for attorney general.”
Read MoreKari Lake Announces Intent to Appeal Superior Court Ruling, New ‘Chase the Ballot’ Effort
A day after Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson ruled against Kari Lake on her second election challenge trial, Lake held a press conference outlining her future plans. She said she is looking at “several paths for appeal” and is also launching a new “chase the ballot” group headed up by EZAZ grassroots organizer Merissa Hamilton. During the event, Lake, who is known for getting the best of reporters due to her skilled background as a news anchor, tangled repeatedly with the local mainstream media.
Read MoreKari Lake Submits Final Brief to Arizona Supreme Court Requesting Review
The Arizona Supreme Court is holding a private conference on Tuesday to discuss whether to accept Kari Lake’s appeal of lower courts dismissing her lawsuit contesting her loss of the gubernatorial race. In addition to her initial petition for review, Lake filed a reply to the defendants’ responses to her petition, and The Gavel Project’s Ryan Heath filed his own amicus curiae brief supporting her.
Read MoreKari Lake Files Petition for Review of Her Election Challenge Dismissal with Arizona Supreme Court
Kari Lake filed her Petition for Review of a Special Action Decision of the Court of Appeals on Wednesday with the Arizona Supreme Court. The petition contended that the Arizona Court of Appeals panel ignored Arizona election laws, including previous court precedent, to dismiss her appeal. Lake’s petition stated, “The Opinion directly contradicts this Court’s admonition that “election statutes are mandatory, not ‘advisory,’ or else they would not be law at all,” citing the Arizona Supreme Court’s 1994 decision in Miller v. Picacho Elementary School District No. 33.
Read MoreFormer ASU Student Appeals Trespassing Conviction for Handing Out Copies of US Constitution
Former Arizona State University student Tim Tizon, being represented by the Chicago-based Liberty Justice Center, filed an appeal in the State of Arizona v. Tizon case Thursday after being convicted for trespassing while handing out copies of the Constitution on the ASU campus. Reilly Stephens, a staff attorney at the LJC, told The Arizona Sun Times this appeal is all about protecting First Amendment Rights.
“For us [the LJC], the core idea here is pretty straightforward. If the First Amendment’s going to mean anything, it means that at the public spaces of a public university, a student should not be arrested for handing out copies of the constitution,” said Stephens via the phone. “What could be a more basic free speech principle than that?”
Read MoreArizona State University Student Convicted of Criminal Trespassing for Handing Out Copies of the Constitution on Campus Files Appeal
Arizona State University (ASU) student Tim Tizon was convicted in October of criminal trespassing in the third degree for handing out copies of the U.S. Constitution on the school’s campus. University Lakes Justice of the Peace Tyler Kissell, a progressive, conducted the trial. The Liberty Justice Center is now representing Tizon with an appeal, which was filed on Thursday.
Read MoreKari Lake and Mark Finchem Appeal Judge’s Decision to Dismiss Their Electronic Voting Machines Lawsuit
Although the deadline for printing ballots for Arizona’s midterm election on Nov. 8 has passed, ending the time for litigation regarding items that must appear on the ballot, one lawsuit regarding the election continues to wind its way through the courts. After their lawsuit requesting the halting of electronic voting machines in the election was thrown out by an Obama-appointed trial court judge, U.S. District Judge John Tuchi, the attorneys for Trump-endorsed gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and Trump-endorsed State Rep. Mark Finchem (R-Oro Valley), who is running for Arizona Secretary of State, filed a notice of appeal with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Tuchi stated in his order dismissing the case that “speculative allegations that voting machines may be hackable are insufficient to establish an injury in fact,” it was too close to the election to file, and the lawsuit should have been filed in state court, not federal court.
Read MoreU.S. Wins Appeal in Case to Extradite Wikileaks Founder Julian Assange
The U.S. won an appeal in its case to extradite Wikileaks founder Julian Assange from the United Kingdom.
The U.K.’s High Court ruled Friday that Assange could be returned to the U.S. where he will face multiple charges related to espionage and hacking, reversing a lower court’s decision blocking his extradition.
Assange’s fiancee Stella Morris said she plans to appeal the decision as soon as possible, calling the decision a “grave miscarriage of justice,” CNBC reported.
Read MoreFederal Appeals Court to Hear Democrats’ Challenge over Order of Candidates on Arizona Ballots
Democrats may be getting somewhere with their lawsuit changing the order of candidates listed on ballots in Arizona, which happens to favor Republicans. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has agreed to hear a lawsuit from multiple Democratic groups challenging an Arizona law which requires candidates from the party which won the last gubernatorial election to be placed first on ballots. Since Republicans win more Arizona gubernatorial races, their candidates end up at the top of the ballot more often.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which is behind the lawsuits, pointed out how the law worked out in Arizona’s 2020 election, since Republican Doug Ducey won the previous gubernatorial election. “In Arizona, the Republican candidate will be listed first in 11 of the state’s 15 counties, where that 80 percent of the state’s population lives.”
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