The judge in Sarah Palin’s libel suit against the New York Times announced on Monday that he will move to dismiss the lawsuit after the jury reaches its verdict.
U.S. District Court judge Jed Rakoff ruled that the case should be thrown out because Palin’s lawyers failed to bring sufficient evidence showing that Times editors acted with “actual malice,” i.e. knowingly publishing false statements or acting with reckless disregard for the truth.
Rakoff was ruling on motions by Times attorneys to dismiss the case, even though the jury in the trial began deliberations on Friday.
“I think this is an example of very unfortunate editorializing on the part of the Times,” Rakoff told the court. “Having said that that is not the issue before the court. The law sets a very high standard for actual malice.”
Rakoff acknowledged that Palin would almost certainly appeal the ruling, and said he would not file his ruling until the jury has reached a verdict.
Palin sued the Times and former editorial page head James Bennett in 2017, after an editorial included language linking Palin’s PAC to the 2011 shooting of former Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.
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