Federal Judge Sets Retrial in Sarah Palin’s Defamation Lawsuit Against The New York Times

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference CPAC in Dallas, Texas on Aug. 4, 2022. Brandon Bell/Getty Images

A federal judge has set an April 2025 retrial in former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s defamation lawsuit against The New York Times, while attorneys for both parties said they’re considering the possibility of a settlement instead of another trial.

During a Nov. 12 phone conference, Judge Jed Rakoff of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York scheduled the retrial for April 14, 2025. This followed a federal appeals court’s decision in August to overturn a February 2022 verdict in favor of the NY Times and order a new trial. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision to vacate the previous verdict was based on alleged errors during trial, including improper jury instructions and exclusion of key evidence.

Following the latest court’s decision, Rakoff ordered lawyers for both sides to consult with each other and their clients so that a “firm and fixed trial date” could be set during the Nov. 12 phone conference. In the course of those consultations, the prospect of a possible settlement emerged.

Kenneth Turkel, a lawyer for Palin, said during the Nov. 12 call that both parties determined that they “wanted to give it a shot,” referring to a negotiated settlement.

David Axelrod, a lawyer for the NY Times, said that a “non-trial disposition” of the case was a possibility, a resolution that would avert the need for another trial.

Rakoff suggested that a magistrate judge or mediator could get involved and the matter could potentially be “settled in a matter of days.”

The legal battle began after the NY Times published an editorial in 2017 titled “America’s Lethal Politics,” claiming that there was a “clear” and “direct” connection between a map circulated by Palin’s political action committee and a 2011 incident in which former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) was shot in the head during a constituent event in Tucson and gravely wounded. The map displayed crosshairs over 20 congressional districts, including Giffords’s, which the editorial implied was a form of political incitement.

Palin sued the NY Times for defamation, alleging that the editorial falsely suggested she was directly responsible for the Tucson shooting. A district court dismissed the case in 2017, but the Second Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated it in 2019, leading to a jury trial in 2022. Although the jury found the NY Times not liable, the district judge had preemptively dismissed the case under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 50, effectively overriding the jury’s role. This, along with other alleged trial errors, prompted the Second Circuit to order a retrial.

The appellate court cited several issues that compromised the original trial, including the exclusion of evidence that could have shown potential bias or prior knowledge of inaccuracies by James Bennet, the editorial’s author. It also flagged improper jury instructions on the “actual malice” standard and raised concerns that jurors had learned of the district judge’s preemptive dismissal during deliberations, which may have influenced their decision.

The case was returned to the Southern District of New York for a retrial, with Judge Rakoff offering both parties the option to schedule the proceedings between mid-December 2024 February 2025 at the latest.

Ultimately, both sides agreed to the April 2025 trial date, with the judge remaining open to a resolution through settlement discussions.

Chase Smith contributed to this report.