NEW YORK – On Monday, a judge said he would dismiss a defamation lawsuit filed by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin against The New York Times, saying the newspaper damaged her reputation with an editorial that falsely linked her campaign rhetoric to the mass shooting.
U.S. District Judge Jed Rokaff ruled with a jury that was still hearing at a trial in New York City where a former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate spoke last week.
The judge said Palin failed to show that The Times acted out of malice, which is required in libel courts involving public figures.
U.S. District Judge Jed Rokaff said he would allow the jury to continue deliberations if his decision is overturned on appeal.
Lawyers for Palin and The Times declined to immediately comment on the judge’s decision.
Palin sued The Times in 2017, claiming the newspaper had damaged her career as a political columnist and consultant for an editorial on gun control published after U.S. spokesman Steve Scolis, a Louisiana Republican, was injured when a man with a history against the Republican Party was wounded. opened fire on congressional baseball team training in Washington.
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An editorial in The Times wrote that before the mass shooting in Arizona in 2011, which seriously injured former US MP Gabi Giffords and killed six others, the Palin Political Action Committee contributed to the atmosphere of violence by distributing a map of constituencies. which was located Giffords. and another 19 Democrats under stylized sights.
The Times acknowledged that the editorial mistakenly described both the map and any reference to the shooting, but said the mistake was not intentional.
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