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On Monday, Feb. 14, Manhattan federal court judge Jed Rakoff said that he will dismiss Palin’s suit, determining that her team of lawyers did not sufficiently prove a key element of the case.
Rakoff’s ruling came while jury deliberation was still in progress. The judge said he will allow the jury to reach a verdict, and he will dismiss the case once they have done so.
According to Rakoff, Palin’s team failed to prove “actual malice,” which is the standard her lawyers had to meet in her defamation case. Jury deliberation began late on Friday, Feb. 11 after a full week of trial, which was delayed after the former Alaska governor contracted COVID-19 after dining out in New York City.
“I think that there is one essential element that plaintiff has not carried its burden with—the portion of actual malice relating to belief in falsity or reckless disregard in falsity,” Rakoff said from the bench, according to Law and Crime.
“My job is to decide the law,” he said. “The law sets a very high standard, the court finds that that standard has not been met.”
Palin sued The New York Times and a former editorial page editor for allegedly damning her reputation in a 2017 editorial that suggested Palin’s associates incident the shooting of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords in Arizona in 2011.
The Times later issued a mea culpa saying that no connection was ever established while acknowledging it mischaracterized an image that had crosshairs placed over the districts of 20 Democrats, including Giffords.
Rakoff noted that his ruling will likely be appealed, which is why he allowed the jury to have its say, which will help advise the Court of Appeals.
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