After ruling against Kari Lake in a remanded election trial challenging her gubernatorial loss to Katie Hobbs, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson rejected Maricopa County's motion for sanctions against Lake on Friday, just three days after their attorneys filed the request. The county's attorneys asserted that Lake's team made several false statements to the court. Lake's attorneys filed a response opposing the request on Thursday.

Thompson laid out the standard for awarding sanctions. He cited A.R.S. § 12-349, which states that sanctions are warranted where a party "brings or defends a claim without substantial justification or primarily for delay or harassment, unreasonably expands or delays the proceeding, or engages in abuse of discovery." Thompson added, "The statute defines 'without substantial justification' as 'groundless' and 'not made in good faith.