A judge has ruled that the Arizona Republican Party and its lawyers must pay $18,000 in legal fees to the Arizona Secretary of State over a failed lawsuit it previously filed seeking a hand count audit of ballots in Maricopa County, the most populous county in the state, due to concerns over the “integrity” and “legitimacy” of the results of the November 2020 election. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge John R. Hannah last week ruled (pdf) that the legal fees requested by Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, who intervened in the case, were “reasonable and appropriate” because the lawsuit filed by the Arizona GOP was legally “groundless” and was filed in “bad faith.” Hannah explained in his 10-page ruling that the suit was groundless because “because the relief sought was not legally available from the parties that were sued at the time the suit was filed.” He also said that plaintiffs …