{"id":125,"date":"2026-05-20T19:04:04","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T19:04:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phoenixrelocationnews.com\/?p=125"},"modified":"2026-05-20T19:04:04","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T19:04:04","slug":"asu-president-wants-his-gaza-protester-lawsuit-deposition-kept-hidden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/phoenixrelocationnews.com\/?p=125","title":{"rendered":"ASU president wants his Gaza protester lawsuit deposition kept hidden"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Michael Crow, the president of Arizona State University, is fighting to prevent video of a deposition he gave in an ongoing civil rights lawsuit from becoming public.<\/p>\n

Read more Phoenix sees progress, but Valley\u2019s homeless population still sky high<\/a><\/p>\n

On March 31, Crow was questioned during a nearly seven-hour deposition by attorney David Chami, who is representing 20 ASU students who were suspended and banned from campus for participating in an April 2024 campus encampment protesting Israel\u2019s war in Gaza and the university\u2019s ties to the country. The students have claimed in a federal lawsuit that the university retaliated against them for their political beliefs in violation of the First Amendment.<\/p>\n

In a May 14 filing, Crow requested a protective order that would preemptively quash the public release of his video deposition. In the filing, Crow attorney Austin Yost asked federal Judge John Tuchi to keep the deposition\u2019s transcript under seal and to ban the \u201cimproper publication\u201d of the video on social media.<\/p>\n

Specifically, Yost wants to bar Chami from sharing the deposition online after Chami posted on TikTok about ASU allowing the Israeli Defense Force to table on the school\u2019s Tempe campus in mid-April. In the short video, Chami shared that he had deposed Crow, adding, \u201cYou\u2019ll all get to see it soon.\u201d Yost argued that the release of Crow\u2019s deposition would be \u201csensationalized or weaponized for media attention\u201d and that it shouldn\u2019t be used to \u201cpublicly harass or embarrass\u201d Crow.<\/p>\n

Chami has argued in response that the video should be released, as there is no \u201cgood cause\u201d to provide \u201cblanket secrecy\u201d to the sworn testimony of a state public official \u2014 especially when that testimony relates to a student\u2019s right to protest. Crow\u2019s \u201cdissatisfaction\u201d with the deposition doesn\u2019t \u201ccreate confidentiality,\u201d Chami wrote. Chami also argued that potential students, or anyone else in the general public, have the right to know Crow\u2019s stance on genocide and if he supports Israel, including financially.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMaking TikToks about Michael Crow and ASU has not been my priority,\u201d Chami told Phoenix New Times in an interview. \u201cBut again, my absolute right to do it is something worth defending.\u201d<\/p>\n

ASU spokesperson Jerry Gonzalez declined to comment on behalf of the university and Crow, citing pending litigation. Yost did not respond to a request for comment from New Times.<\/p>\n

The two-year-old lawsuit stems from ASU\u2019s crackdown on the campus protest in late April 2024. A group of students and non-student protesters attempted to build an encampment on the university\u2019s Alumni Lawn to protest the war in Gaza and to call for the end of any ASU investments in Israel\u2019s government.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Within the first 20 minutes of the protest, university police arrested two protesters for violations of a campus rule prohibiting encampments on the lawn in front of Tempe\u2019s Old Main. By the next morning, campus police in riot gear, aided by troopers from the Arizona Department of Public Safety and deputies from the Maricopa County Sheriff\u2019s Office, had arrested 72 of the protesters.<\/p>\n

Two days after the protest, students began receiving emails from the university informing them that they\u2019d been suspended, banned from campus and prohibited from communicating with faculty or staff, effective immediately. Later, Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell charged 68 protesters \u2014 including the 20 students Chami represents \u2014 with criminal trespass, a class 3 misdemeanor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

Are depositions public?<\/h2>\n

That criminal case is ongoing \u2014 though one protester\u2019s case was dismissed and four others have accepted plea deals \u2014 as is the civil lawsuit against ASU. The lawsuit is currently in the discovery phase, which is why Crow was able to be deposed.<\/p>\n

Read more Petersen allies pushing\u00a0decades-old, unproven sex claim about Glassman<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Such depositions \u2014 or, at least, portions of them \u2014 are often made public through the court record by being attached to a motion or other filing, said civil rights attorney Benjamin Taylor, who is not involved in the case. Depositions are essentially a free-for-all for questioning attorneys, who can ask the subject essentially whatever they want. The deposed person\u2019s counsel may object, but the subject still must answer the questions. Those objections are then presented to a judge, who will make the final decision on whether the question goes on the record later, Taylor said.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, here the judge is going to decide how much, if any, of the deposition will be used,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cThere\u2019s probably a lot of information that may not be relevant to this case per se, but could be relevant to the totality of the circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chami has given hints about what Crow\u2019s deposition contains. He told New Times that he asked Crow about the encampment crackdown and \u201cmany different topics,\u201d including the Epstein files and Crow\u2019s \u201cconnections to certain people who I find to be affiliated with the pro-Israeli lobby.\u201d Chami alleges that the Anti-Defamation League \u2014 a nongovernmental organization known for its pro-Israel advocacy and its position that criticism of Israel and Zionism is antisemitic \u2014 was in \u201cdirect contact\u201d with Crow just days before the protest.<\/p>\n

Chami said he asked Crow about being named in the Epstein files several times in connection with disgraced ASU professor Lawrence Krauss. Krauss was a good friend of Epstein\u2019s who relied on the disgraced financier when navigating a sexual misconduct scandal at ASU. Chami asked Crow about his ties to Epstein, who, in addition to being a child sex offender, had alleged ties to Israeli intelligence.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand that it may not be directly on point,\u201d Chami said. \u201cBut my job is to establish and prove, through direct and circumstantial evidence, that Michael Crow has connections to the Israeli government, to Zionist interests and was protecting those interests at the expense of students who are protesting those interests.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yost argued in a court filing that because portions of the deposition are \u201cirrelevant\u201d to the case, Crow\u2019s video shouldn\u2019t be made public. Yost marked 28 exhibits in the deposition, which included pictures, statements, documents, photos, and emails that have \u201cnever been disclosed or produced\u201d and \u201cnearly all of which are irrelevant to this case.\u201d Chami thinks Yost is referencing the Epstein files-related questioning.<\/p>\n

Chami declined to get more specific about Crow\u2019s answers during the deposition. That testimony is confidential until the judge rules otherwise. Tuchi is currently reviewing the motion, and no rulings have been made on the issue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

However, Taylor thinks the public will eventually be able to view at least some of Crow\u2019s deposition. While some parts could be redacted, Taylor said he doesn\u2019t foresee the entire thing being excluded.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAnything that\u2019s relevant to the case itself,\u201d Taylor said, \u201cwill probably be allowed to be published.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Challengers poised to oust incumbents in Tempe City Council election<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ASU President Michael Crow wants to bar the public from seeing his deposition in a lawsuit from students suspended after protesting Israel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":124,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education"],"yoast_head":"\nASU president wants his Gaza protester lawsuit deposition kept hidden - Phoenix Relocation News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/phoenixrelocationnews.com\/?p=125\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"ASU president wants his Gaza protester lawsuit deposition kept hidden - 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