White

I. BACKGROUND

A. UNDERLYING LITIGATION

White and defendants are former or current students at Stanford University. White’s suit alleged defendants conspired to spread false rape and sexual assault accusations against him. He alleged that defendants shared four defamatory communications to individual Stanford students, two defamatory statements to and on behalf of a company where defendant Gabriel had worked, and two defamatory statements to the larger Stanford community. Defendants moved under the anti-SLAPP statute to strike the defamation claim. (Code Civ. Proc., § 425.16.) While the anti- SLAPP motions were pending, White was allowed to take limited depositions of each defendant, subpoena documents from Stanford, and obtain communications in defendants’ possession concerning the sexual assault allegations. (Code Civ. Proc., § 425.16, subd. (g).) The trial court granted Gabriel’s and Thompson’s individual anti-SLAPP motions in full, striking the defamation claim based on two communications involving Gabriel’s former employer. It granted in part Wall’s and Harris’s joint motion, striking the claim as to three of the four purported communications to individual Stanford…