Not 'even a speck' of proof: Judge shoots down Sarah Palin's request to do over NYT lawsuit

On Tuesday, the Huffington Post reported that a federal judge has denied a request by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to redo her failed lawsuit against The New York Times.

"The judge who presided over Sarah Palin’s libel case against The New York Times denied her request Tuesday for a new trial, saying she failed to introduce 'even a speck' of evidence necessary to prove actual malice by the newspaper," said the report. "U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff made the assertion in a written decision as he rejected post-trial claims from Palin’s lawyers."

"Her attorneys had asked the judge to grant a new trial or disqualify himself as biased against her, citing several evidentiary rulings by Rakoff that they said were errors," said the report. "Those ranged from how the questioning of jurors occurred during jury selection, to how jurors were instructed when they asked questions during deliberations."

Rakoff rejected all of these claims, saying, “in actuality, none of these was erroneous, let alone a basis for granting Palin a new trial.”

Palin sued the Times in response to an editorial that alleged her rhetoric was partially responsible for the mass shooting in Tucson, Arizona that critically injured former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords. She claimed that the allegation was injurious to her reputation and her political career.

A jury rejected her claims in February, with the judge making clear she had failed to meet her burden of proof and he would have set aside the verdict even if the jury had ruled in her favor.