The ex-governor of Alaska contends she was defamed by a 2017 editorial linking her to a deadly shooting in Arizona.
A federal judge has ordered a jury trial in former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s libel suit against the New York Times over an editorial linking her to the 2011 Arizona shooting rampage that badly wounded then-Rep. Gabby Giffords and killed six others.
The initial version of the 2017 Times editorial said it was “clear” that the 2011 shooting was linked to a map Palin’s political action committee released that included crosshairs over Giffords’ Tucson district. However, no such link has ever been established. The shooter, Jared Lee Loughner, was mentally ill and was sentenced to life in prison in 2012.
But a federal appeals court revived the suit last year, ruling that the unorthodox procedure Rakoff used violated Palin’s rights under federal court rules to pursue evidence and testimony about the episode before a definitive ruling on her suit. Despite his earlier ruling in the Times’ favor, Rakoff expressed some skepticism about Bennet’s claim that he was not attempting to draw a direct causal link between the Palin group’s graphic and the Tucson shooting.
The judge did find for Bennet on some points, noting that the evidence established he had no role in Atlantic articles about the Loughner shooting. The trial could be something of an awkward spectacle for the Times, in part because the newspaper effectively forced Bennet out of his post two months ago. Bennet departed amid controversy over his stewardship of the editorial page, including a decision to publish an op-ed by Sen. Tom Cotton advocating the use of military forces to quell urban unrest stemming from the death of African-American motorist George Floyd in an encounter with Minneapolis police.
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