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Sarah Palin to seek new trial, judge in defamation lawsuit, judge says

Sarah Palin
Posted at 4:45 PM, Feb 24, 2022
and last updated 2022-02-24 16:45:56-05

NEW YORK CITY — Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin plans to seek a new trial and judge in her defamation lawsuit against the New York Times.

The revelation came Wednesday when Judge Jed Rakoff disclosed the news during a conference call with lawyers, the Associated Press reported.

According to the AP, Rakoff said in an order last week he informed jurors while they were still deliberating that he had ruled against the former Republican vice presidential nominee the day before.

The judge added that several jurors told his law clerk that they found out about the ruling from pop-up news notifications on their phones but that the messages didn't affect their decision during deliberations.

The jurors delivered their verdict the next day, rejecting her claim that The Times acted with malice with a 2017 editorial erroneously linking her campaign rhetoric to the mass shooting that injured former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.

The Times acknowledged the editorial had wrongly suggested Palin's political action committee helped inspire a 2011 Arizona shooting that killed six, quickly fixing the errors, which the paper said was an "honest mistake."