Judge Set to Approve Defense Motion and Dismiss Sarah Palin’s Libel Lawsuit Against the New York Times

Manhattan federal court Judge Jed Rakoff announced today he would dismiss Sarah Palin’s libel lawsuit against the New York Times when the jury returns a verdict because her lawyers had not met the high standard of “actual malice” in the complaint.

The jury will continue deliberating, however, to allow Palin the opportunity to appeal the verdict to a higher court.

Palin had sued The Times, and the newspaper’s former editorial page editor, James Bennet, in 2017 after the paper made an error that she believes damaged her reputation when it published an editorial under the headline “America’s Lethal Politics.”

Rakoff said of his ruling, “I’m not altogether happy to have to make this decision on behalf of the defendant. I’m troubled by the fact that the erroneous edits made by Mr. Bennet reasonably could be read by many readers as an accusation that Ms. Palin’s PAC’s distribution of the crosshairs map was clearly and directly linked to the Loughner shooting … “

But, that is not the issue he has to rule on, Rakoff noted and he said Palin did not meet the high threshold of “actual malice” in her allegations against the Times.  

Rakoff added in his decision to accept the defense’s motion, “The court finds that that standard has not been met.”

Attorney David Axelrod told the court in his closing argument on Friday, that the error was an honest mistake and not part of a conspiracy or scheme to defame Palin. 

“It’s about an honest mistake. It wasn’t a political hit piece,” Axelrod insisted, despite the fact that the shooting they mentioned had occurred years earlier and had nothing to do with what had happened at that time.

Bennet told the jury the error was his fault but was steadfast in claiming that he held no ill will toward Palin. 

“This is my fault, right. I wrote those sentences. I’m not trying to shift the blame to anyone else,” Bennet explained.