NEW YORK — The New York Times did not defame former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin by incorrectly linking her to a 2011 mass shooting, a federal judge ruled Monday.
Manhattan Federal Judge Jed Rakoff ruled Palin failed to prove her case, but said he won’t formally dismiss her lawsuit until after a jury returns a verdict since she will almost certainly appeal.
Palin alleged The Times and former editorial board editor James Bennet knowingly published false information about her in the piece “America’s Lethal Politics,” which ran in print on June 14, 2017. Palin, as a public figure, had to prove The Times made the mistake with “actual malice.”
