Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer’s deposition transcript, dated June 21, 2024, reveals explosive details in his defamation lawsuit against Kari Lake and her husband.
The transcript shows Richer considered a Senate run with the intent to “make life hell for Kari Lake” and admitted to being “anti-MAGA.” These admissions come in the wake of the controversial 2022 election in Maricopa County, where 60% of voting machines reportedly failed on Election Day.
Richer’s anti-MAGA stance became evident through his actions, including founding the Pro-Democracy Republicans PAC, a dark money organization aimed at opposing MAGA-aligned candidates. He also acknowledged voting for Democrats in the 2022 elections and expressed his intention to support Joe Biden in 2024.
It can be recalled that Richer oversaw early voting in Maricopa County during the 2022 election, where the race was stolen from Kari Lake through vote tabulating machine failures that disenfranchised Republicans on election day and phony mail-in ballots with no real signature verification.
Then, apparently, in an attempt to “make life hell for Kari Lake,” Richer sued her for defamation after she spoke out against him for his involvement in her election for Governor, where he also operated a PAC against candidates like Kari Lake.
Richer is also involved in counting the votes for Kari Lake’s Senate race. As reported, Lake is coming back in the race as the County slow-walks the mail-in ballot counting process after estimating it would take 10 to 13 days to count all the ballots.
Questions have been raised about Richer’s ability to oversee a fair election, given his stated goal of making the leading candidate’s life “hell.”
In a noteworthy development, Stephen Richer deleted his Twitter/X account on Thursday, a platform where he frequently shared updates on elections, vote counting, and results. The move comes as Kari Lake’s Senate race grows increasingly competitive, with hundreds of thousands of ballots still uncounted.
According to the deposition transcript, Richer said in text messages to a friend that he wanted to “run for U.S. Sen, just to fly the flag for real conservatism and make life hell for Kari.”
EXCERPT BELOW:
Deposition of Stephen Isidore Richer
6/21/2024
Page: 99
A. Yes. Thank you.
Q. Do you know what we’re looking at here?
A. I don’t know what format, but it appears to be communications between — I think this is a text between Ben Blink and me.
Q. Okay. And who is Ben Blink?
A. He’s a friend.
Q. And here in — and this is — this exchange is in March of 2023?
A. Yes.
Q. All right. And Mr. Blink says, “What options are intriguing you?”
And your response is, kind of you — you give kind of a laundry list here of bullet points: “Get out of politics permanently; get out of politics temporarily; run for reelection as a Republican; run for reelection as an independent; run for mayor if no Kate; and then finally, run for U.S. Sen, just to fly the flag for real conservatism and make life hell for Kari.”
Did I read that correctly?
A. Yes.
Page: 100
Q. Okay. And I assume relative, you had potentially — you were contemplating running for mayor if, for some reason, Mayor Kate Gallego did not run?
A. It appears that’s what I’m referring to there, yes.
Q. Okay. Help me understand what you meant by the statement “run for U.S.” — it says “U.S. Sen.” I take it that means U.S. Senate.
A. Yes.
Q. This appears to be another text exchange between yourself and then somebody that you have in your contacts as AZ Garrick Taylor; is that correct?
A. Yes.
Q. And about three-quarters of the way down you state — well, I’ll go through it here. And this is not marked as confidential.
Mr. Garrick Taylor says, “Maybe there’s a message here. Richer for Senate. We could do worse.”
Your response is, “Hah. That sounds like something I’d say.”
And you have a follow-on comment: “I just don’t think there’s enough non-MAGA voters in the primary right now for running against somebody as well known and financed as Kari. And I’m not only not MAGA, but I’m anti-MAGA. Thoughts?”
Did I read that correctly?
A. Yes.
Deposition of Stephen Isidore Richer
6/21/2024
Page: 105
Q. So I’m more focused on the statement, “I just don’t think there’s enough non-MAGA voters in the primary right now for running against somebody as well known and financed as Kari.”
Could you elaborate on maybe what you meant by that phrase — that statement, sir?
A. I think Kari’s a behemoth within the Arizona Republican Party, within the national Republican Party, and I think it would take somebody of great political acumen or finance to beat her in a Republican primary in the state of Arizona.
Q. And are you communicating to this individual, at least at this point in time, that you did not think you had the sufficient political standing or capital to beat Kari Lake in a Senate primary?
A. I can’t remember. This is over a year ago, but that seems possible.
Q. And I’m trying to understand what you’re communicating here, sir.
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