New York CNN —
Two years after former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin lost her defamation lawsuit against The New York Times, a federal appeals court on Wednesday granted her a new trial.
In 2022, a New York jury found that Palin had failed to prove that the New York Times and its editorial editor, James Bennet, were liable for defamation after the paper published an editorial that falsely linked a map published by Palin’s political action committee to the 2011 shooting that injured former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.
The editorial in question was published the day Rep. Steve Scalise was injured in a shooting at a baseball practice in Washington, D.C. It was intended to address the heated political rhetoric that preceded the shooting, but in making its point, the Times mistakenly stated that there was a “clear” connection between its map and one published by Palin’s PAC that showed crosshairs through districts including Rep. Giffords’ district. Bennet testified that she added language that there was a clear connection between the two and worked quickly to issue a correction after realizing the error.
Palin sued the New York Times, but a jury found in 2022 that she had failed to prove “actual malice,” a legal standard that Palin had to meet in a defamation lawsuit because she is a public figure.
But during deliberations, Judge Jed Rakoff ruled that Palin’s defense team had failed to prove key elements of the case and that even if the jury had found in Palin’s favor, it would have tossed out the jury’s verdict.
Palin appealed the case to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled Wednesday that the judge in the case “improperly interfered with the jury’s jurisdiction by ignoring credibility determinations, consideration of the evidence, and facts and reasoning that a reasonable jury would have found in support of Ms. Palin’s claims.”
The appeals court found “several significant problems with the trial,” including “erroneous exclusion of evidence, inaccurate jury instructions, legally incorrect answers to juror questions during the verdict,” and that jurors learned of the judge’s dismissal through push notifications on their phones while they were deciding the verdict.
“Governor Palin is very pleased with today’s ruling, which marks a major step forward in the process of holding publishers accountable for content that misleads readers and the public,” Palin’s attorney, Shane Vogt, said in a statement. “The truth deserves a level playing field, and Governor Palin looks forward to presenting her case to a jury that has been ‘presented with the relevant evidence and properly instructed on the law,’ as stated in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision.”
A New York Times spokesman called the decision “disappointing.”
“We are confident we will prevail in the retrial,” Times spokesman Charlie Stadtlander said.
Sonia Moghe contributed reporting.
