According to The Hill newspaper, the claim came following Maricopa County Superior Court judge Peter Thompson on Saturday ruled against Lake in her election challenge that alleged officials committed misconduct to secure Hobbs´ victory.

The county, which comprises about 60% of Arizona’s population and became the epicenter of Lake’s challenge, argued that the Republican´s lawsuit constituted harassment, was groundless and not made in good faith.

“Courts are established by Arizona´s Constitution and statutes to resolve actual disputes between parties” and “they should not be used to harass political opponents and sow completely unfounded doubts about integrity of elections,” the county’s attorneys wrote to the judge.

Maricopa County and Hobbs argued Lake and her attorneys should have known that they had no evidence to successfully mount an election challenge.

They also noted Lake’s refusal to commit to accepting the election results prior to the midterms and a tweet Lake issued on Monday accusing the judge of integrity violations.

There is no evidence that the judge engaged in the conduct alleged by Lake, who has since deleted the tweet, and her campaign in court filings contended that the tweet was merely quoting an article published by a conservative outlet.

The judge had dismissed eight of 10 counts alleged in Lake’s lawsuit prior to trial, ruling they did not constitute proper grounds for an election contest, but the judge permitted a trial to move forward so Lake could attempt to prove the two remaining counts.

Following the two-day trial, the judge ultimately found the campaign did not provide sufficient evidence to prove that officials intentionally committed misconduct, the misconduct was intended to affect the results or the outcome was changed as a result.

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