Judge denies Palin's request for new trial

(Juneau, AK) -- A federal judge is denying former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's bid for a new trial in her defamation case against The New York Times.

U.S. District Court Judge Jed Rakoff filed a written decision yesterday denying the request in full. Rakoff says Palin's motion is "wholly lacking in merit" and that the former Republican Alaska Governor failed to provide "even a speck" of evidence supporting her claim that she was intentionally or recklessly defamed by the defendants.

Palin claimed in her lawsuit that the New York Times committed libel against her in a 2017 editorial about gun control.