U.S. District Court Judge Jed Rakoff said Monday he will toss out former Republican Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s lawsuit against the New York Times.
NEWS: RAKOFF SAYS HE WILL DISMISS CASE AFTER JURY REACHES VERDICT – THAT PALIN LEGAL TEAM HAS FAILED TO MAKE “ACTUAL MALICE” CASE REQUIRED OF PUBLIC FIGURE
NODS TO INEVITABLE APPEAL BY PALIN
— David Folkenflik (@davidfolkenflik) February 14, 2022
Rakoff tossed Palin’s libel lawsuit against the New York Times during the jury’s deliberation on the case, according to Politico. Rakoff made his decision on the basis that Palin’s legal team did not provide sufficient evidence the New York Times wrote false information about her or acted recklessly, the outlet reported.
The suit, initially brought in 2017, accused the New York Times of damaging Palin’s conservative commentary career after the paper published an editorial linking her and her political action committee to a 2011 Arizona shooting, which injured former Democratic Arizona Rep. Gabby Giffords and killed six others. (RELATED: Former NYT Editor Denies Blaming Sarah Palin For Mass Shooting)
“Before the shooting, Sarah Palin’s political action committee circulated a map that showed the targeted electoral districts of Ms. Giffords and 19 other Democrats under stylized cross hairs,” the editorial said.
James Bennet, the former New York Times editorial editor, stated during his testimony that he didn’t intend to harm Palin in the piece, according to Reuters. He also stated that he was not attempting to assign blame to Palin nor her political action committee.
“We don’t promise to be perfect, we promise to try our damnedest to be perfect, and when we’re not we try to fix it,” Bennet said, according to Reuters.