8 Feb 6th-Feb 12th, 2025 phoenixnewtimes.com PHOENIX NEW TIMES | NEWS | FEATURE | FOOD & DRINK | ARTS & CULTURE | MUSIC | CONCERTS | CANNABIS | famed First Amendment attorney Marc Randazza of the Las Vegas-based Randazza Law Group. Randazza has been involved in countless defamation cases over the years. “Most court cases end with a whimper, not a bang,” he said. “It’s very common for the stipulated dismissal to say everybody bears their own costs and fees.” But Randazza added that the fact there’s “not even a milquetoast retraction” from Lake raises his eyebrow. Randazza said he has worked on cases that dragged endlessly as the parties wrangled over what each would say after the suit. As for damages, Randazza observed, Richer still had to prove Lake’s accusations caused him harm. That would be tough since Republicans were pissed at him long before Lake piled on. Richer was elected county recorder in 2020 and was openly contemptuous of Trump and the “Stop the Steal” movement. That stance made him a hero to Democrats and to the GOP’s never-Trumpers, but anathema to the MAGA faithful. Death threats? Sure, Richer got ’em. He also got ’em before Lake blamed Richer and others for her own shortcomings. Plus, any “damage” to his rep was easily offset by the gushy plaudits from the media. Indeed, Richer now writes opinion pieces for the largest newspaper in the state. “If you asked me to gamble on what actually happened in this case,” Randazza told me, “I wouldn’t put five bucks up that says money changed hands in either direction.” SLAPP happy In the grand scheme, Lake and Richer both emerged from their fracas as losers. Richer got spanked in the GOP primary by MAGA-ite Justin Heap, who won the general election. Lake ran a crappy campaign for U.S. Senate and got her backside handed to her by Democrat Ruben Gallego, a loss that she hasn’t been so vociferous in disputing. She may or may not wind up leading the state media entity Voice of America for Trump. Hopefully, she puts up more of a fight for free speech in that role than she did in her court battle with Richer. When pols start suing people for defamation, it can have a chilling effect. None other than the U.S. Supreme Court said as much in the landmark 1964 case New York Times v. Sullivan. Early in Richer’s and Lake’s legal battle, the First Amendment Clinic at Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law got involved, asking the court to dismiss Richer’s suit based on a recently rewritten anti-SLAPP law in Arizona. SLAPP stands for “strategic lawsuits against public participation.” Historically public figures and wealthy plaintiffs have used such suits to muzzle criticism by the press and others. Under the Arizona law, a “state actor” such as Richer should be held to a higher standard when it comes to defamation. Though Richer took pains to note that he brought the complaint in a personal capacity, First Amendment Clinic director Gregg Leslie told me Richer was “nonethe- less a public official bringing a libel case.” The lower court ruled against the clinic and the Court of Appeals declined to take the case. Ditto the state Supreme Court. Though the Republic and the social media peanut gallery slammed ASU’s clinic for making the argument, Leslie believes he and his law-student staffers “were doing the right thing by trying to help it get dismissed.” Some commentators were aghast that Leslie’s clinic weighed in on Lake’s side, as if to do so was beyond the pale. But Randazza — who has repped porn plat- forms, Satanists, Nazis, Alex Jones and more — praised the First Amendment Clinic as one of the finest in the country. “That’s what the First Amendment is: a neutral principle,” Randazza explained. “Man, my client list is worse than the guest list at Mos Eisley. And I’m proud to have represented every single one of ’em.” Leslie said he has no regrets about taking the Lake case. When the heat was on, he recalled, some ASU faculty would stop by and ask him if he was OK. “Yeah,” he told them. “If you’re a First Amendment advocate, you live for a case like this.” Even Maynard, Richer’s mouthpiece and an old First Amendment hand, thinks Leslie and his ASU clinic were correct in taking up for Lake in principle, calling it a “good opportunity” for the law students involved, though he still thinks they were wrong on the law. What would he say to the naysayers who pooh-poohed the clinic? “What the hell? That’s what they’re supposed to do,” Maynard replied. After all, he added, “this is a First Amendment issue.” First Amendment lawyer Marc Randazza said he “wouldn’t put five bucks up that says money changed hands” in the settlement between Kari Lake and Stephen Richer. (Courtesy of Marc Randazza/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 4.0) Defame and No Fortune from p 6
