{"id":1941434,"date":"2023-05-31T16:36:58","date_gmt":"2023-05-31T20:36:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/arizona-secretary-of-state-candidate-ordered-to-pay-legal-fees-in-groundless-election-challenge\/"},"modified":"2023-05-31T16:39:37","modified_gmt":"2023-05-31T20:39:37","slug":"arizona-secretary-of-state-candidate-ordered-to-pay-legal-fees-in-groundless-election-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/arizona-secretary-of-state-candidate-ordered-to-pay-legal-fees-in-groundless-election-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"Arizona Secretary of State Candidate Must Pay Legal Fees for Baseless Election Challenge."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Farizona-secretary-of-state-candidate-ordered-to-pay-legal-fees-in-groundless-election-challenge%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1941434&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Arizona Republican Ordered to Pay Over $48,000 in Fees for Challenging Election Results<\/h2>\n<div class=\"post_content\">\n<div class=\"aplayer_app\" data-source=\"https:\/\/vs1.youmaker.com\/assets\/2023\/0531\/b23e0b60-eb6f-4e04-ba5d-76bb34d66aca\/audio.mp3?length=2709549&#038;duration=226\"><\/div>\n<p>The 2022 election results in Arizona have been a hot topic of discussion, with many challenging the outcome. One such challenger was Mark Finchem, the Republican candidate for Arizona secretary of state. However, his challenge has come at a cost.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cIn election matters, Arizona\u2019s courts have emphasized that sanctions should be awarded only in rare cases, so as not to discourage legitimate challenges,\u201d Julian wrote. \u201cThis is such a case.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>On May 22, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Melissa Julian ordered Finchem to pay over $48,000 in fees related to litigation. This included about $40,000 in attorney fees to his Democrat opponent and now Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, and about $7,400 in attorney fees to Gov. Katie Hobbs. Fontes won the election with a 120,000 vote margin against Finchem, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/another-wave-of-portland-police-quit-amid-massive-spike-in-shootings-and-stabbings-fire-dept-responding-to-10-homeless-tent-fires-a-day\/\" title=\"Another Wave Of Portland Police Quit Amid Massive Spike In Shootings And Stabbings; Fire Dept. Responding To 10+ Homeless Tent Fires A Day\">court records<\/a> and Arizona election results.<\/p>\n<p>Julian also ordered Finchem to pay a combined $385 in taxable costs related to the suit\u2014$293 to Fontes and $92 to Hobbs.<\/p>\n<h3>Sanctions Ordered Previously<\/h3>\n<p>This is not the first time Finchem has been ordered to pay sanctions. In March, the same <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/seattle-to-pay-3-6-million-for-damages-to-business-owners-caused-by-chaz-chop\/\" title=\"Seattle to Pay .6 Million for Damages to Business Owners Caused by CHAZ\/CHOP\">judge imposed sanctions<\/a> on Finchem and his attorney, calling Finchem\u2019s challenge to the election \u201cgroundless\u201d and ordering monetary sanctions under Arizona law, which she said <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/arizona-secretary-of-state-candidate-ordered-to-pay-legal-fees-in-groundless-election-challenge\/\" title=\"Arizona Secretary of State Candidate Must Pay Legal Fees for Baseless Election Challenge.\">helps discourage lawsuits<\/a> for which there is \u201cno legitimate basis or fact or law.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Finchem objected to the request for sanctions by Hobbs and Fontes, arguing that Arizona precedent does not allow the court to impose sanctions in election suits. However, Julian found that Finchem\u2019s lawsuit was not brought in \u201cgood faith,\u201d which added to her reasoning for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/judge-says-documents-point-to-stefan-halper-lying-to-fbi\/\" title=\"Judge Says Documents Point to Stefan Halper Lying to FBI\">imposing monetary sanctions<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3>Finchem\u2019s Challenge<\/h3>\n<p>Finchem\u2019s lawsuit (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/23463386-cv2022053927-first-amended\">pdf<\/a>) was dismissed by Julian in December, which he appealed shortly after. He alleged a litany of misconduct claims against Hobbs related to his election, which he referred to as \u201ccomical and tragic.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4859184\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2022\/11\/12\/Adrian-Fontes-1200x800.jpg\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2022\/11\/12\/Adrian-Fontes-1200x800.jpg\" alt=\"Adrian Fontes, Democrat candidate for Arizona Secretary of State speaks at an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/senate-race-tightens-in-north-carolina-as-democrat-beasley-closes-on-budd\/\" title=\"Senate Race Tightens in North Carolina as Democrat Beasley Closes on Budd\">election night watch party<\/a> at the Renaissance Phoenix Downtown Hotel in Phoenix, Ariz., on Nov. 8, 2022.&#8221; \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Adrian Fontes, Democrat candidate for Arizona Secretary of State speaks at an election night watch party at the Renaissance Phoenix Downtown Hotel in Phoenix, Ariz., on Nov. 8, 2022. (Christian Petersen\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/a><br \/>\n\t<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Challenging election results is not uncommon, but it is important to have a legitimate basis for doing so. Mark Finchem, the Republican candidate for Arizona secretary of state, learned this the hard way when he was ordered to pay over $48,000 in fees related to litigation. This included attorney fees to his Democrat opponent and now Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, and attorney fees to Gov. Katie Hobbs. The court found that Finchem\u2019s lawsuit was not brought in \u201cgood faith,\u201d which added to the reasoning for imposing monetary sanctions. It is important to remember that sanctions should only be awarded in rare cases, so as not to discourage legitimate challenges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Arizona&#8217;s Republican candidate for secretary of state, Mark Finchem, has been ordered by a Maricopa County Superior Court Judge to pay over $48,000 in fees related to litigation over the 2022 election results. The former state lawmaker challenged the results in court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1627,"featured_media":1941435,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[543],"tags":[4472,22199,4076,7727,3728,11339,4431,5280,3779],"class_list":["post-1941434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-epoch-times","tag-arizona","tag-baseless","tag-candidate","tag-challenge","tag-election","tag-fees","tag-legal","tag-pay","tag-secretary"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1941434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1627"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1941434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1941434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1941435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1941434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1941434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1941434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}