Sarah Palin Loses Defamation Case to The New York Times

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin lost her defamation retrial against The New York Times on Tuesday, after a jury found the paper did not libel her in a 2017 story that she said hurt her reputation.

The story at the center of the trial falsely suggested Palin’s political action committee was connected to the 2011 Arizona mass shooting that killed six people and severely injured then-Rep. Gabby Giffords. Former NYT opinion editor James Bennet cried on the witness stand last week and apologized to Palin after saying he “blew it” with the editorial, which Palin said defamed her.

The 2017 editorial, titled “America’s Lethal Politics,” initially claimed Palin’s PAC “circulated a map of targeted electoral districts that put Ms. Giffords and 19 other Democrats under stylized cross hairs.” That was false, and no evidence was shown that the mentally ill shooter was incited to violence by the PAC. Giffords suffered a brain injury as a result of the attempted assassination; The Times updated its story to correct the error about 14 hours after first publishing it.

The correction did not mention Palin by name and she sued the paper for defamation, saying it had falsely accused her of inciting violence. Bennet and The Times have said it was an honest error that resulted from a fast-approaching deadline. “I made a mistake,” Bennet told the courtroom last week.

A jury on Tuesday, after deliberating for roughly two hours, reached its verdict that The Times had not defamed Palin. The civil trial was held at a Manhattan federal court.

Kenneth Turkel, one of Palin’s attorneys, had urged the jury to find The Times liable because Bennet had acted with “reckless disregard” for the truth, the Associated Press reported. Turkel told the jurors that Palin was owed money for the mental pain and damage to her reputation that she suffered from the editorial, saying it would be good to “find a number” to help the ex-politician get some closure.

“To this day, there been no accountability,” he said. “That’s why we’re here.”

Tuesday’s verdict came after federal Judge Jed Rakoff tossed out Palin’s lawsuit in 2022, but the case was reinstated by an appeals court last year after finding the judge made mistakes during the first trial. On her way out of court on Tuesday, Palin did not confirm or deny whether she will appeal this verdict, only telling reporters she had to “talk about” her options with her legal team.

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