Abraham J. Hamadeh

In a third election contest lawsuit filed in Maricopa County Superior Court (separate from the main election contest), Hamadeh and allies sought to decertify the 2022 general election results, alleging improper signature verification and ballot handling. Judge Pineda dismissed the case as time-barred and without standing, and sanctioned Hamadeh and his attorney for filing in bad faith, ordering over $200,000 in fees. The Arizona Court of Appeals rejected the underlying claims on April 9, 2024 and in October 2024 vacated the $200,000 sanctions, concluding the claims were fairly debatable rather than frivolous.

After narrowly losing the 2022 Arizona attorney general race to Democrat Kris Mayes by 280 votes, Hamadeh pursued multiple legal challenges. In August 2023 the Arizona Supreme Court found that his attorneys had misrepresented to the court that they had diligently sought a final, appealable ruling from Mohave County Superior Court Judge Lee Jantzen when they had not. On October 17, 2023, Chief Justice Robert Brutinel ordered Hamadeh to pay the opponents' legal fees - more than $42,000 to Kris Mayes and $12,921 to Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, totaling roughly $55,000 - as a sanction for the misrepresentation. The election challenge itself was rejected. Hamadeh remained politically active and was later elected to Congress in 2024.

After losing the 2022 Arizona attorney general race to Democrat Kris Mayes by 280 votes, Hamadeh filed a special action petition asking the Arizona Supreme Court to fast-track his appeal. The court found that Hamadeh and his legal team misrepresented to the court that they had sought relief from the trial court when they had not done so. On August 23, 2023 the court denied the petition and on October 17, 2023 issued an order requiring Hamadeh to pay attorney fees of approximately $42,000 to Mayes and $12,921 to Secretary of State Fontes for unnecessarily forcing them to respond to a filing premised on a misrepresentation.

In one of Hamadeh's later attempts to overturn his 2022 attorney general loss, a Maricopa County Superior Court judge dismissed the challenge in 2024 and ordered Hamadeh and his attorney Ryan Heath sanctioned, concluding that a preponderance of the evidence showed bad faith in filing a meritless 'election challenge.' On October 30, 2024, the Arizona Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal of the underlying claims but rescinded the trial court's order that Hamadeh pay his opponents' legal fees, so this particular monetary sanction did not stand. Included because a court formally ordered a sanction even though it was subsequently vacated on appeal.