Palin’s Defamation Showdown with NY Times Returns to Court Monday

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has another chance to fight The New York Times. The retrial of her defamation case is set to begin on Monday in a Manhattan federal district Court.

A federal appeals judge ordered a new trial in August after Palin’s first trial, which took place in 2022, ended with a loss. The appeals court cited Jed Rakoff’s problematic rulings in the original case against James Bennet, the editor of the editorial section and the newspaper. He will also preside over the trial.

Palin sued in 2017 in response to a Times editorial that she claims defamed her as a former vice-presidential nominee.

Sonja West teaches law at the University of Georgia. She told The Wall Street Journal this case would never die.

Palin accused the Times and Bennet of suggesting in an editorial about gun violence that an ad of Palin’s had incited a 2011 shooting at a political event in Arizona that severely wounded former Rep. Gabby Giffords and killed six others. Palin’s political action committee published a map with crosshairs over several congressional districts controlled by Democrats, including that of Gifford’s.

Bennet wrote the following in an editorial in the Times: “The connection between political incitement was obvious.”

The Times has apologized and corrected the error across all platforms. The Times said there was no link between the ad and the shooting. Palin filed a suit claiming that the damage had already been done.

While jurors deliberated in the first trial, Rakoff announced his intent to throw out the lawsuit regardless of the jury’s verdict. Some jurors later said they saw Rakoff’s announcement. The Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals called Rakoff’s announcement improper in ordering the retrial, among other issues with his evidentiary rulings.

Palin is expected to testify at the trial, which will last five days.