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Today: April 25, 2025

Jury selected for Sarah Palin's libel suit against The New York Times

Palin NY Times
April 14, 2025

NEW YORK (AP) โ€” A jury was selected Monday to hear a retrial of Sarah Palinโ€™s claims that The New York Times libeled her in an editorial eight years ago.

Opening statements were scheduled for Tuesday as the onetime Republican vice presidential candidate and ex-governor of Alaska gets another chance to prove to a federal jury that the newspaper defamed her with the 2017 editorial falsely linking her campaign rhetoric to a mass shooting. Palin said it damaged her reputation and career.

The Times has acknowledged the editorial was inaccurate but said it quickly corrected the โ€œhonest mistake.โ€

Jury selected for Sarah Palin's libel suit against The New York Times
Palin NY Times

During a jury selection process that lasted less than an hour, Judge Jed S. Rakoff in Manhattan gave jurors a brief description of the case, saying that the plaintiff was Sarah Palin and the defendant was The New York Times, โ€œcomplete unknowns I'm sure."

The trial, expected to last up to two weeks, comes after the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals restored the case last year.

In February 2022, Rakoff rejected Palin's claims in a ruling issued while a jury deliberated. The judge then let jurors deliver their verdict, which also went against Palin.

In restoring the lawsuit, the 2nd Circuit said Rakoff's dismissal ruling improperly intruded on the jury's work. It also cited flaws in the trial, saying there was erroneous exclusion of evidence, an inaccurate jury instruction and an erroneous response to a question from the jury.

Jury selected for Sarah Palin's libel suit against The New York Times
Palin NY Times

Before jury selection began Monday, the sometimes self-deprecating and humor-prone Rakoff told lawyers that the appeals court โ€œseems to think I got it wrong in a lot of ways.โ€

He said that on Friday, he โ€œwent back and read the entire opinion, painful though it was.โ€

The retrial occurs as President Donald Trump and others in agreement with his views of news coverage have been aggressive toward media outlets when they believe there has been unjust treatment.

Trump sued CBS News for $20 billion over the editing of a โ€œ60 Minutesโ€ interview with his 2024 opponent, former Vice President Kamala Harris, and also sued the Des Moines Register over an Iowa election poll that turned out to be inaccurate. ABC News settled a lawsuit with Trump over its incorrect claim the president had been found civilly liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll.

Jury selected for Sarah Palin's libel suit against The New York Times
Palin NY Times

Kenneth G. Turkel, a lawyer for Palin, left the courthouse Monday without commenting.

Charlie Stadtlander, a spokesperson for the Times, said Palin's claim stemmed from โ€œa passing reference to an event in an editorial that was not about Sarah Palin.โ€

"That reference was an unintended error, and quickly corrected. Weโ€™re confident we will prevail and intend to vigorously defend the case,โ€ Stadtlander said in a statement.

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