In a somewhat expected twist, an appeals court granted former Republican Alaska governor and one-time VP nominee Sarah Palin’s motion to allow her to refile her defamation lawsuit against the New York Times and one of its editors for a briefly posted piece that linked Palin to the mass shooting that killed six and wounded 13, including Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, the Washington Post reports.
The original case was decided in 2022, with the judge and the jury both deciding that Palin’s claims for damages were meritless. The Times had removed the piece which had linked a Palin PAC promotional piece that used gunsight targets on Congressional districts to the shooter hours after it was posted and the outlet issued a correction. Palin, however, claims the damage was incurred before the correction was issued.
The ability to refile, however, wasn’t based on the facts of the case but rather on the fact that the judge announced to the court on the record–while the jury was sequestered in deliberations–that he would have ruled for the Times and against Palin. Some jurors later said they news alerts reporting the judge’s statement; the defense says this swayed the jury. And now they get to argue the case all over again.