Attorney in Kari Lake voting machine lawsuit hit with sanctions from judge

PHOENIX (CN) — A federal judge imposed sanctions on attorney Alan Dershowitz for his role in Kari Lake’s 2022 lawsuit aiming to ban the use of electronic voting machines in Arizona. 

Despite playing what Dershowitz described as an extremely limited role in Lake’s suit against the Arizona secretary of state and supervisors of both Maricopa and Pima counties, U.S. District Judge John Tuchi ordered him to pay $12,220 in attorney’s fees to the Maricopa County defendants for breaking Rule 11, a federal law that holds attorneys accountable for making false or misleading allegations. 

Dershowitz said he intended only to give legal advice to Lake’s team, not to represent her.

“In any event, Mr. Dershowitz’s subjective intent is not controlling at this stage,” Tuchi wrote in his Friday morning order. “As the court previously noted, compliance with Rule 11 is largely measured by an objective standard.”

Lake sued then-Secretary of State Katie Hobbs in April 2022, claiming that electronic voting machines are too susceptible to remote hacking and therefore should be banned from use in Arizona until they can be scientifically analyzed for potential for “manipulation or intrusion.” The companies delegated by the state to provide the voting machines declined to show the inner-workings of their machines, claiming trade secrets. Dershowitz says he gave advice to Lake’s actual lead attorney, Andrew Parker, on the constitutionality of that matter alone. 

Tuchi dismissed Lake’s case this past August, deeming the claims “too speculative” to have legal standing. Two weeks earlier, attorneys for Maricopa County asked him to issue sanctions against Lake’s counsel for violating Rule 11.

Tuchi granted the motion in December, asking Maricopa County to calculate its attorneys fees to be paid by Lake’s counsel. 

Dershowitz told Tuchi he shouldn’t be included in the sanctions because he made an “honest mistake” in listing himself as “of counsel,” rather than “as counsel.” He said he intended the distinction to make clear that he was there only as an adviser to the law firm representing Lake, and didn’t represent Lake. He said he worked only four hours on the case. But the clerk’s office, and subsequently the county’s legal team, he said, interpreted his signature on the court documents as him serving as lead counsel for Lake. 

“ I did absolutely nothing wrong,” Dershowitz said in an email following the release of the order. “I’ve been doing the same thing — consulting on constitutional issues as 'of counsel' for 50 years based on the advice of the nation's leading ethics lawyer and its leading litigator.”

Dershowitz’s description of his involvement in the case clashed with how Lake represented it. 

“I am listed as the Plaintiff along with AZ House Rep @RealMarkFinchem,” Lake tweeted after filing the complaint. “Legal heavyweight Alan Dershowitz will be representing us. @AlanDersh is a Liberal Democrat. All voters will benefit from the removal of these machines.”

In an episode of The Lindell Report about Lake’s lawsuit, host and conservative activist Mike Lindell called Dershowitz “one of the lead attorneys on this.” Lake didn’t correct him.

Regardless of Dershowitz's intent, Tuchi wrote that the presence of his signature on court documents includes him in the presentation of the lawsuit, giving him the same responsibility as other attorneys on the case. 

“Whether Mr. Dershowitz signed, or intended to sign, those filings as ‘counsel’ or ‘attorney; or ‘of counsel,’ he signed them,” Tuchi wrote. “And he effectively conceded that he authorized his signature on these filings without investigating whether they were legally and factually sound.”

Dershowitz said in a May hearing that he wasn’t aware his name had been signed on every filing, as he assumed once he gave advice on the constitutionality question, he would be done with it. Any signatures filed after he advised the attorneys were printed without his knowledge or consent, he said.

“The court found it irrelevant whether such signatures were voluntary, as the plain text of the rule applied not only to required signatures ‘but also to signatures that are not required but nevertheless present,’” Tuchi wrote.

Despite his clear actions in the case, Tuchi acknowledged Dershowitz’s “misguided” attempt to communicate his limited role, saying he believes when Dershowitz says he wasn’t fully aware that others represented him as playing a major role in the case. Tuchi also considered Dershowitz’s apology, writing that he doesn’t want to impose sanctions so severe as to deter other legal experts from providing advice in litigation for fear of sanctions. 

So, Tuchi reduced Dershowitz’s fee to only 10% of Maricopa County’s total fees of $122,200.

Dershowitz said he plans to appeal the decision, and will take it to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary.

Maricopa County’s attorneys declined commenting on the order.

"We believe the order speaks for itself," attorney Emily Craiger said in an email.

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