Sarah Palin: Attorneys question New York Times writer as defamation trial closes first day

Experts believe the future of the First Amendment could be at stake in Sarah Palin’s libel suit against The New York Times, with the case expected to test the legal definition of political free speech in the United States.

Jury selection began today after she tested positive for Covid-19, delaying the start of the trial.

Learn more about the case and what’s at stake:

City Hall says anyone who came in contact with Sarah Palin should be tested for Covid-19 after she was spotted at two New York City restaurants following her positive diagnosis on 24 January.

She also dined indoors at an Upper East Side Italian restaurant two days earlier, despite the city’s requirements that customers show proof of vaccination to eat indoors.

She is not vaccinated.

Sarah Palin told reporters outside US District Court in Manhattan on Thursday that she wants “justice, for people who expect the truth in the media.”

Judge Jed Rakoff told prospective jurors that “some of you undoubtedly will have heard of one side or the other or both and will have, perhaps, views.”

“That’s an irrelevance. What is central to every jury is the American sense of fair play,” he said, according to Reuters.

The trial is expected to last five days, and Ms Palin will testify.

After testing positive for Covid-19 and refusing to isolate, against urgent public health guidance, Sarah Palin dined outdoors at two Manhattan restaurants

“Outdoor dining wasn’t improper nor was it illegal,” she told Law 360 as she entered an elevator in US District Court on Thursday.

She told reporters this morning that she tested negative on Wednesday and did not have symptoms after testing positive.

“All cleared to go never had any kind of symptoms and feel great,” she said.

David Axelrod, delivering opening remarks on behalf of The New York Times, stressed that the newspaper corrected the error at issue and apologized. The disputed words in the editorial were on the newspaper’s website for 12 hours.

Palin’s attorney Shane Vogt claimed that the newspaper “has a policy against apologizing because they think they can do whatever they want. They are The New York Times.”

The 2017 editorial – “America’s Lethal Politics” – sought to contextualize then-recent political violence by pointing to the circumstances motivating Jared Loughner to kill six people at an event with Democratic US Rep Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona in 2011.

The editorial incorrectly linked the shooting to a map from Palin’s PAC showing crosshairs over Democratic districts, and edits from editorial page editor James Bennet appeared to suggest a link between “incitement” to violence and the map – a word central to Palin’s lawsuit.

The corrected editorial includes a lengthy correction:

“An editorial on Thursday about the shooting of Representative Steve Scalise incorrectly stated that a link existed between political rhetoric and the 2011 shooting of Representative Gabby Giffords. In fact, no such link was established. The editorial also incorrectly described a map distributed by a political action committee before that shooting. It depicted electoral districts, not individual Democratic lawmakers, beneath stylized cross hairs.

Two weeks later, Palin sued.

New York, testing its purported status as the center of the universe, currently is hosting a trial for Sarah Palin against the newspaper of the record in a courthouse where Michael Avenatti is also on trial. President Joe Biden is also on his way to visit Mayor Eric Adams and Governor Kathy Hochul.

The ex-governor and Avenatti – who is accused of defrauding Stormy Daniels, who he represented in her legal battle with Donald Trump – also bumped into each other at US District Court during lunch recess and wished each other good luck. (Avenatti said he didn’t mean “good luck” in Palin’s case specifically but as a general statement.)

Pailin also falsely claimed to a reporter that she does not need to be vaccinated against Covid-19 because she has “natural immunity.”

Elizabeth Williamson, a former editorial writer and now a features writer for the newspaper, is the first witness.

She wrote a first draft of the editorial at the centre of Palin’s suit before then-editor James Bennett added sentences that forced the newspaper to issue a correction.

The attorney who delivered opening remarks for Sarah Palin in her lawsuit against The New York Times also helped win a $140m jury verdict against Gawker on behalf of Hulk Hogan.

The outcome of that trial, with Hogan receiving financial support from Peter Thiel, forced the publication into bankruptcy before closing down. The website relaunched in 2021.

Attorney Shane Vogt said on Thursday that “we come to this case with our eyes wide open” and faces an “uphill battle” to prove Palin’s case, which was initially dismissed by the same judge presiding over the trial.

“We are not here to win your votes for [Ms Palin] ... or her policies,” he told jurors. “We are going to focus on what the defendants did and said.”

Elizabeth Williamson, a former editorial writer and now a features writer for the newspaper, who wrote a first draft of the editorial in question, was the first witness to testify.

Following a series of questions from Palin’s attorney about editorial board functions and emails about the editorial, Judge Rakoff dismissed the jury for the day.

They will reconvene at 9.30am EST on Friday.

Testimony from Elizabeth Williamson, who wrote a first draft of the editorial before James Bennet’s errors prompted corrections from the newspaper, will continue tomorrow.

Reporting in 2020 from the Columbia Journalism Review detailed how editorial staff drafted and then worked to correct the editorial – including texts from Bennet to Williamson, in which he said apologised to her and said he “moved too fast” when he made his edits.

Palin’s attorneys brought up the fact that editorial staffers were sharing a 2011 column from Frank Rich about the shooting, though he worded his column to avoid pinning the blame on Palin or anyone, adding that “we have no idea nor does it matter”.

Williamson will be back on the witness stand tomorrow. Palin’s attorneys said they have another hour of questioning.