Retrial opens for Sarah Palin’s libel suit against The New York Times
By LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press NEW YORK AP A retrial is set to begin Monday for Sarah Palin s lawsuit claiming The New York Times libeled her in an editorial eight years ago The onetime 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 editorial falsely linking her campaign rhetoric to a mass shooting Palin declared it damaged her reputation and career The Times has acknowledged the editorial was inaccurate but announced it briskly corrected an honest mistake Related Articles Trump goes with his gut and the world goes along for the ride Federal judge sides with Trump in allowing immigration enforcement in houses of worship Trump reaches deals with law firms allowing them to avoid prospect of punishing executive orders U S Sen Michael Bennet jumps into governor s race saying he wants to forge a better politics Agents say Trump s orders promoting coal conflict with Colorado s emissions goals The trial expected to last a week comes after the nd U S Circuit Court of Appeals restored the episode last year Jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday morning In February Judge Jed S Rakoff in Manhattan rejected Palin s insists in a ruling issued while a jury deliberated The judge then let jurors deliver their verdict which went against Palin In restoring the lawsuit the nd Circuit revealed Rakoff s dismissal ruling improperly intruded on the jury s work It also cited flaws in the trial saying there was erroneous exclusion of evidence an inaccurate jury instruction and an erroneous response to a question from the jury The retrial occurs as President Donald Trump and others in agreement with his views of news coverage have been aggressive toward media outlets when they believe there has been unjust rehabilitation Trump sued CBS News for billion over the editing of a Minutes interview with his opponent former Vice President Kamala Harris and also sued the Des Moines Register over an Iowa balloting poll that turned out to be inaccurate ABC News settled a lawsuit with Trump over its incorrect claim the president had been located civilly liable for raping writer E Jean Carroll Kenneth G Turkel a lawyer for Palin did not return a request for comment Charlie Stadtlander a spokesperson for the Times revealed Palin s claim stemmed from a passing reference to an event in an editorial that was not about Sarah Palin That reference was an unintended error and briskly corrected We re confident we will prevail and intend to vigorously defend the matter Stadtlander commented in a report
