Court documents in former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s defamation case against The New York Times indicate that she wants to subpoena nearly two dozen reporters.
Lawyers for The Grey Lady attempted to convince a Manhattan federal court judge to have Mrs. Palin’s motion to have “twenty-three non-party current and former Times reporters, editors and other employees” dismissed. The legal team argued that most of them “had nothing to do with the editorial at issue.”
At issue for Mrs. Palin is the requirement that she prove malice on the part of the Times, which falsely linked her in a June story to the 2011 mass shooting in Arizona that severely injured Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.
“In 2011, when Jared Lee Loughner opened fire in a supermarket parking lot, grievously wounding Representative Gabby Giffords and killing six people, including a 9-year-old girl, the link to political incitement was clear. Before the shooting, Sarah Palin’s political action committee circulated a map of targeted electoral districts that put Ms. Giffords and 19 other Democrats under stylized cross hairs,” the Times’ editorial initially read.
The court documents, which were revealed Wednesday, show Mrs. Palin’s desire to obtain “every internal communication [the newspaper] has had about her since 2011,” The New York Post reported Thursday.
The Times’ June 14 piece was published shortly after 66-year-old gunman James Hodgkinson, a Bernie Sanders supporter, shot Rep. Steve Scalise and three others on an Alexandria, Virginia, baseball field where Republican lawmakers were practicing.
“Why someone would no longer be in public eye? Think constant libel & slander have anything to do with it?” Mrs. Palin asked her sarcastically asked her supporters via Twitter on June 15.
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.