A jury was selected on Monday to hear a retrial of Sarah Palin’s claims that the New York Times libeled her in an editorial eight years ago.
Opening statements were scheduled for Tuesday as the one-time 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 “honest mistake”.
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, “complete unknowns I’m sure”.
The trial, expected to last up to two weeks, comes after the second US 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 second circuit said Rakoff’s dismissal ruling improperly intruded on the jury’s work.