UPDATE: This piece was updated with a reaction from former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin (R), which she posted on X.
On Tuesday, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin (R) lost the retrial of her defamation suit against The New York Times after she alleged the editorial board defamed her by linking her to the assassination attempt on Arizona Democratic Congresswoman Gabby Giffords. The retrial came after improper conduct by the Manhattan federal judge overseeing the case affected the jury’s deliberations, a panel of judges found.
The nine-person, Manhattan jury only took a couple of hours to reach their decision. Earlier in the afternoon, The Times published their own report noting that the jury began their deliberations, with the ruling coming a little after 4 o’clock p.m. Eastern.
In an update to the report with the news that they jury sided with them, The Times (via Katie Robertson and David Enrich) suggested that trying to hold the press accountable for lies they tell the public was an attack on the First Amendment:
The case became a bellwether for battles over press freedoms and media bias in the Trump era, with Ms. Palin’s lawyers saying they hoped to use it to attack a decades-old Supreme Court precedent that makes it harder for public figures to sue news outlets for defamation.
The paper also appeared tired of fighting this fight but admitted that Palin could continue to pursue them:
This is the second time a federal jury has concluded that The Times was not liable for defaming Ms. Palin in its editorial. The case first went to trial in 2022, and both the jury and the judge ruled in favor of The Times. But last year, a federal appeals court invalidated those decisions, setting the stage for this month’s retrial.
It is unclear whether the verdict will be the end of the lawsuit’s eight-year run or whether Ms. Palin’s lawyers will again appeal.
“The decision reaffirms an important tenet of American law: publishers are not liable for honest mistakes,” boasted Times spokeswoman Danielle Rhoades Ha.
Speaking with reporters outside the courthouse, Palin seemed to give mixed signals on what her next moves would be. At one point she said she wanted to “get on with life” and “go home to a beautiful family,” while also acknowledging: “We haven’t talked about what we’ll do next legally.”
In a post on X, Palin wrote: "We didn’t prevail in federal court against the New York Times. But please keep fighting for integrity in media. I’ll keep asking the press to quit making things up." She also asked her followers to "keep the faith."
We didn’t prevail in federal court against the New York Times. But please keep fighting for integrity in media. I’ll keep asking the press to quit making things up⚖️🇺🇸 keep the faith https://t.co/6gB1ZVvzFj pic.twitter.com/IDJeOgFqZN
— Sarah Palin (@SarahPalinUSA) April 22, 2025
The retrial came about after U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff announced in court that he would rule against Palin no matter what the jury found during their deliberation, which they were actively doing at the time. Multiple jurors had received push notifications on their phones by media outlets reporting on his comment, and an appeals court found that that event likely influenced the jury and a retrial was necessary.
