government
“The Arizona court stresses that sanctions should only be granted in rare cases so as not to deter legitimate challenges.” I have written Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Melissa Iyer Julian before dropping the hammer on failed Republican secretary of state candidate Mark Finkem and his attorney Daniel McCauley.Such is the case. ”
Finchem, a former state legislator and member of the Oath Keepers militia, who visited DC on January 6, 2021, accused both the presidential election of being stolen and the Capitol riots being instigated by Antifa. claims. His attorney, Danielle McAuley, says Cave has little election law experience until 2022. He appears to be a private practitioner from Creek. In 2022, he was representing the Cochise County Board of Supervisors after it refused to comply with its statutory duty to certify the results of the midterm elections.Macquarie seems to have failed going in and out Federal court on the way to win his client Referral for prosecution From the Secretary of State.
And if you’re guessing this dynamite combo falls like peanut butter and broken glass, you are right.
of Complaint Rounding up and squinting, it’s almost English in itself. Here’s what plaintiffs freestyle about a printer malfunction at a Maricopa County polling place. As a result, ballots were sent to an off-site counting machine. Eggaz!:
None of these voters came to the polling place for such an unreliable and unprecedented voting experience. I was. Traveling to the polling place, he would have to wait over an hour, sometimes longer, to get to the polling place. More than that, a process that should be sacred exudes injustice.
After ranting about the horrifying few hours when he got locked out of his Twitter account, DAMN DEEP STATE! — Finchem finally got to the point of his complaint. The wrong person signed the machine’s certification slip, thus making the ballots cast by the machine invalid and cruel. robbery Republican candidate with 80,000 votes.
There were two problems with this claim. First, the machine was indeed properly certified, as the Secretary of State quickly proved. motion to dismiss Citing published data. Second, Finchem lost by 120,000 votes to him. Therefore, even if his complaints were correct on all counts, and even if they weren’t, it would have made no difference to the outcome of the election.
The case was dismissed in December, after which defendants former Secretary of State (now Governor Katie Hobbs) and current Secretary of State Adrian Fontes moved to seek sanctions. And yesterday they got them, at least as long as the plaintiff and his lawyers covered the costs of the opposing attorneys. It is explained that there is
Finchem’s attorneys apparently “admitted at oral argument that they had not considered the data provided,” thus proving the complaint’s allegations to be “unfounded.” Nor does he appear to have consulted the necessary experts to determine if his 80,000 was correct. greater or lesser 120,000.
The court lashed out at the lawyer for utterly ignoring legal standards related to the campaign in Arizona, “To decide for sure[ing] After the refusal of “many experienced litigators,” the case could not have been filed,” the court said, suggesting the facts “needed further investigation into the validity of the contest.” suggests.
And it didn’t get better from there. Apparently Macquarie admitted in open court that he had taken a completely nonchalant attitude towards the case, as he was nearing his retirement and didn’t mind too much about having his disqualified. .
McCauley’s partial recognition of the meritlessness of the action is evident by his own comments at oral argument that he would be disqualified as a result of the submission, given his impending retirement. It also supports sanctions because it demonstrates a conscious decision to pursue the matter despite recognizing that the contest has no legal merit.
Naturally, this failed to impress Judge Julian, who held Finchem and McCauley jointly and severally liable for the defendants’ fees. But perhaps it will impress Alan Dershowitz, who ranks second in embarrassing sanctions awards among lawyers to earn such honors in the 2022 midterm elections.
Silver lining!
Liz Dye I live in Baltimore and write about law and politics.
