Palin moves to disqualify judge in defamation case against NY Times

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) asked a judge in New York to disqualify himself from a defamation case she brought against The New York Times. 

In a court filing on Tuesday, Palin argued Judge Jed Rakoff “contaminated” the jury pool in her case by announcing that he would move to throw the case out before the jury had reached a verdict, Reuters reported. 

A jury reached a verdict that found the Times not liable of defamation against Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee.

However, Rakoff made the rare move a day before the verdict, indicating he believed Palin’s lawyers had provided no “legally sufficient evidentiary basis” for a case against the Times and he would move to have the case dismissed.

Rakoff wrote in a subsequent ruling that several jurors testified to the court that they learned of his move to dismiss the case before they decided on a verdict via push alerts on their smartphones. 

Palin’s lawyers, in the Tuesday filing, wrote “a reasonable person fully informed of the facts would question the court’s impartiality and predisposition.” 

Palin’s initial claim stems from an editorial linking her to the deadly 2011 shooting in an Arizona parking lot of then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.).