Arizona Official Wants Kari Lake Investigated on Potential Felony Charges Punishable by Prison
Arizona’s election warfare may be taking a drastic turn, with the newly elected secretary of state calling on the attorney general to investigate GOP gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake.
Democratic Secretary of State Adrian Fontes has asked state law enforcement to start a criminal investigation of Lake after she tweeted images of allegedly “illegally counted” ballots from the 2022 midterm elections.
Fontes sent a letter to new state Attorney General Kris Mayes on Monday regarding the potential felony offense.
The letter pointed to Lake’s Jan. 23 post showing the ballots and asked state officials to “investigate and take appropriate enforcement action against Kari Lake for potential violations of Arizona law committed under her Twitter handle, @KariLake.”
Lake’s post contended that the signatures on the early ballots did not match those from the registration records. She argued that this is evidence of invalid ballots being counted in her race against now-Gov. Katie Hobbs, who defeated Lake by around 17,000 votes.
“I think all the ‘Election Deniers’ out there deserve an apology,” Lake tweeted.
🚨 BOMBSHELL DISCOVERY 🚨
Today’s Senate Testimony CONFIRMS nearly 40,000 ballots illegally counted (10% of the signatures reviewed).
I think all the “Election Deniers” out there deserve an apology. pic.twitter.com/3g2x5zgd2c
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) January 23, 2023
Fontes claimed that Lake’s actions violated an Arizona law that prohibits the unauthorized disclosure of voter registration information.
Violating this statute constitutes a class six felony in Arizona. A non-dangerous class six felony offense is punishable by up to two years in prison if the offender has no previous felony convictions, according to Shouse Arizona Law Group.
The Kari Lake War Room Twitter account addressed Fontes’ allegations.
“Adrian Fontes wants Kris Mayes to investigate & potentially imprison [Kari Lake] for the ‘crime’ of… sharing signature verification evidence that was presented before the [Arizona Senate Republicans] & is currently in her lawsuit,” the account stated.
“Welcome to the Banana Republic of Arizona.”
Adrien Fontes wants Kris Mayes to investigate & potentially imprison @KariLake for the ‘crime’ of… sharing signature verification evidence that was presented before the @AZSenateGOP & is currently in her lawsuit.
Welcome to the Banana Republic of Arizona.
— Kari Lake War Room (@KariLakeWarRoom) January 31, 2023
A follow-up post argued that these legal threats are simply a political move by those who have power and want to keep it.
“There’s a reason why these people don’t want us inspecting the ballots & the envelopes,” the post stated. “Because they’ve been pushing through bunk signatures for years.”
Why doesn’t cartel-lawyer Fontes want @KariLake to talk about signature verification?
Is it because he knows it doesn’t exist?
There’s a reason why these people don’t want us inspecting the ballots & the envelopes
Because they’ve been pushing through bunk signatures for years.
— Kari Lake War Room (@KariLakeWarRoom) January 31, 2023
It’s the people who they are attacking the most that are the biggest fighters for America.
They can keep sending their attack dogs at @KariLake.
She won’t back down.
— Kari Lake War Room (@KariLakeWarRoom) January 31, 2023
Fontes railed against Lake’s supporters during a Monday interview on MSNBC in which he called questioners of election integrity “MAGA fascists.”
“We’re not going to tolerate this nonsense under any circumstances,” Fontes said. “We have to attack this terrorism directly because it is an attack on our democracy.”
Lake currently has legal challenges in place that are set to be heard on Wednesday after a court of appeals approved a briefing that was denied by the Arizona Supreme Court.
The Republican has vowed to take the fight to the top of the American judiciary if necessary.
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