Sarah Palin’s legal crusade against The New York Times over libel claims may have come to a quiet end, with a federal judge batting down her latest bid for a new trial. 

The former Alaska governor and vice presidential nominee has been trying to secure a legal judgment against the Times since 2017, over an op-ed that linked her political action committee’s rhetoric to a shooting that injured Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., that year. But as my MS NOW colleague Jordan Rubin has documented, her efforts have not been successful, with Palin losing a retrial in April.

The streak of defeats continued when U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff denied her request that he initiate yet another new trial and recuse himself. In his written opinion, Rakoff wrote that “any fair reading of the transcript shows that the Court frequently ruled in favor” of Palin and “was scrupulous in affording her a totally fair trial.” 

“For the foregoing reasons, the Court hereby denies plaintiff’s motions for a new trial and for judgment as a matter of law,” he wrote. “The Clerk is respectfully directed to close the case.”

When Palin first sued the Times, the fact she hired two lawyers with experience bringing a media company to heel over defamation claims fueled suspicion that she was out to inflict maximum damage on the news organization. But it appears this case can now be put to bed. 

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