Palin to seek new trial against New York Times, judge says

A U.S. district judge on Wednesday said the legal team for former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) plans to seek a new trial in her libel lawsuit against The New York Times, which was dismissed earlier this month. 

Judge Jed Rakoff said during a hearing that Palin’s legal team is planning to make a motion requesting to interview jurors and conduct a new trial in the case. Palin’s lawyers wish to have a reconsideration of Rakoff’s ruling, as well as seek his disqualification from any future proceedings, The Wall Street reported. 

A jury in the case earlier this month ruled the Times was not liable for publishing an editorial incorrectly linking Palin to a mass shooting in an Arizona parking lot where then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) was shot and seriously wounded.

While the jury was still deliberating the case, Rakoff made the rare move of indicating he believed Palin’s lawyers had provided no “legally sufficient evidentiary basis” for a case against the Times and he would move to have the case dismissed.

Last week, Rakoff wrote in a court filing that several of the jurors who ruled against Palin had learned of his move to dismiss the case before they decided on a verdict via push alerts on their smartphones. 

“The jurors repeatedly assured the Court’s law clerk that these notifications had not affected them in any way or played any role whatever in their deliberations,” Rakoff wrote in the filing. “Nevertheless, in an excess of caution, the Court hereby brings the foregoing facts to the parties’ attention … If any party feels there is any relief they seek based on the above, counsel should promptly initiate a joint phone conference with the Court to discuss whether any further proceedings are appropriate.” 

In a statement to the Journal on Wednesday, the Times said it is “confident that the judge and jury decided the case fairly and correctly.”