Kari Lake embroils Arizona State in controversy over defamation suit

Donors and alumni are outraged that Arizona State University is defending failed gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake in a defamation lawsuit.

The Republican Senate hopeful, who claims she's the state's "lawful governor" despite her election loss, has been sued by Maricopa County recorder Stephen Richer over her allegedly false election claims, and the university's First Amendment Clinic filed a motion to dismiss the case, reported the Washington Post.

“I'm upset that my school is involved in helping her out, but that's a personal thing," said Tom Ryan, an ASU law school alum. "More importantly, why is this legal clinic being involved with somebody who has way more than enough money, has way more than enough attorneys, on an issue where they’re more likely than not to get their butts kicked?”

The clinic joined Lake for America and the Save America Fund in filing a motion for Arizona Superior Court judge Jay Adleman to dismiss Richer's suit, and Gregg Leslie, a longtime media lawyer and the clinic's executive director, said the case gave law students a chance to work on a possibly precedent-setting legal matter and test the parameters of the state's law against Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation.

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“Some of [Lake's] claims, you might just want to roll your eyes at,” Leslie said. “But on the other hand, people have the right to say, ‘I think we need to look into this more.’”

Lake has admitted to making false claims about Richer in the aftermath of her election loss, but she claims to have a First Amendment right to do so.

"She has cast doubt on my loyalty to our country, our state and my office," said Richer, also a Republican. "She did this knowing that it would only throw gasoline on the fire of falsehoods about our election. Lake has not sent me into hiding. Nor will she ever. But her defamatory statements have irrevocably altered my life, closed opportunities and damaged relationships."

Richer said he's less concerned about who represents Lake than he is with holding her accountable for "repeated specific false statements that" led to death threats and other harm against him, but ASU graduates believe Lake is the "antithesis" of the university's values.

“She attacked the very foundation of our democracy — exactly what we as Arizona State law students were told not to do,” said Scott Palumbo, an Arizona State law graduate and major donor.

“She’s trying to use the gravitas of the university as another pawn to claim she’s a legitimate, credible person,” Palumbo added. “They gave her that opportunity and it doesn’t sit well with every graduate I’ve spoken with.”