By Matthew Casey/KJZZ
Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, the dirty RINO who sued Kari Lake for defamation backed by the far-left Soros and Obama-linked henchmen at Protect Democracy who are trying to silence all election critics on the right, has come under fire for reportedly using staff and public funds to gather media content and likely evidence pertaining to his lawsuit against Kari Lake.
This could also be seen as an effort to influence Kari Lake’s election and stop a political opponent utilizing public funds. While Richer claims to be a Republican, he has made it a goal to stop people like Kari Lake from being elected to office.
Richer, who oversaw early voting in Lake’s stolen 2022 election for governor, founded and operated the Pro-Democracy Republicans PAC, a dark money PAC aimed at eliminating candidates with a MAGA agenda. It was later revealed that Richer’s office colluded with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to censor information they disagree with surrounding elections in Maricopa County, explicitly mentioning The Gateway Pundit’s reporting.
As The Gateway Pundit reported, Kari Lake recently pled no contest in the lawfare defamation case, which is backed by a Soros-linked nonprofit, so that she could focus on her campaign against Soros-funded Democrat Ruben Gallego.
The latest stunt is nothing new for Stephen Richer.
Richer previously came under fire for potentially violating the law and using his office for political gain to stop an election integrity ballot measure that would have prevented bogus mail-in ballots from being counted.
The Gateway Pundit previously reported that Richer was accused in a complaint filed with former Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich of illegally using his office and public funds to campaign against the 2022 ballot initiative, Proposition 309, which would have created universal voter ID requirements for all voters to cast a ballot.
Proposition 309, named the Arizonans for Voter ID Act, would have required all voters to have proof of registration regardless of how, when, or where their ballot is cast, including when voting by mail. This is a common-sense measure to protect elections, but Richer lobbied against this ballot initiative and reportedly published a document, written by a County employee during work hours, in opposition to the County website, which appears to be illegal under Arizona laws that prohibit the use of public funds to influence an election.
The ballot initiative failed to pass by less than one percent last election cycle, where 60% of voting machines failed on election day and severely disenfranchised Republican in-person voters.
Similarly, Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs recently came under fire after it was discovered her office may have violated the law by using government resources to advance her political career and influence elections in early 2019, immediately after she entered the Secretary of State’s office. As uncovered in public records, an employee at the Secretary of State’s office used government resources to acquire a blue ‘verified’ checkmark for Katie Hobbs’ personal and campaign Twitter page.
An Arizona legal expert told The Gateway Pundit, “At the time, this privilege was only available under very specific circumstances and, based on Twitter’s response, was not readily available to her, which could be a violation of ARS 38-504(C),” said the attorney. This was the same Twitter account that Hobbs used in 2017 to label Trump supporters “neo-Nazis” and for her political campaign in the last election.
AZ Free News reports,
Public records revealed that Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer tasked staff with compiling articles and online content pertaining to his personal defamation lawsuit against Kari Lake — Senate candidate and 2022 gubernatorial candidate — as well as topics of personal political interest.
Richer also tasked staff with printing his favorite articles and pieces of online content from these lengthy daily news compilations and organizing them in a binder. Richer admitted in one email obtained by public records that this daily content gathering assignment took a “significant amount of time” for staff to put together.
Richer filed his defamation lawsuit last June against Lake over her claims of him improperly administering the 2022 election. Lake has unsuccessfully petitioned to dismiss his lawsuit; her petition was denied earlier this month.
Records reveal that Richer has regularly tasked staff with tracking a wide variety of media reports and other online content on topics of personal political interest to Richer, unrelated to the statutory duties of the recorder’s office. This included coverage of other elected officials in Arizona and across the nation; the political landscape for the 2024 election; the indictments against former President Donald Trump; developments in social media; and updates on various public policies.
Some news and online content gathered by staff touched on legal challenges to free speech.
According to AZ Free News, Richer’s office responded to a request for comment with a statement that said, “Providing leadership with news clips relating to the office and regarding current events is a standard practice. It has been a practice of this office for the past three years and it was originally implemented by staff from former Senator McSally’s office, where it was a standard practice, who joined the Recorder’s Office in January 2021… Recorder Richer values news and being aware of developments within our state and relating to our statutory responsibilities.”
However, they did not respond to additional questions regarding what content was gathered and used in Richer’s defamation lawsuit and why staff were tasked with gathering content on Richer’s personal lawsuit and political topics unrelated to the Recorder’s office.
