New York – A jury on Tuesday began deliberating whether to hold The New York Times liable for an error in a 2017 editorial that former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin says damaged her reputation.
The jury started deliberations in early afternoon after lawyers for Palin and the newspaper delivered closing arguments at a Manhattan federal court civil trial that is in its second week.
Palin testified Monday that death threats against her increased and her spirits drooped after an editorial about gun violence said her political action committee had contributed to political rhetoric that enabled an atmosphere of violence.
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The Times corrected the article less than 14 hours after it was published.
Kenneth Turkel, an attorney for Palin, urged the jury Tuesday to find the Times liable for defamation on the grounds that its former editorial page editor, James Bennet, either knew what he was publishing was wrong or acted with “reckless disregard” for the truth.
He told the jury it should award Palin compensatory damages for the harm done to her reputation and private mental anguish, adding that they should “find a number and let her get some closure to this thing.”
“To this day, there been no accountability,” he said. “That’s why we’re here.”
He told jurors not to be deceived by Palin’s “bouncy” persona on the witness stand.
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“She doesn’t cry a lot,” Turkel said. “It may have been to them an honest mistake. For her, it was a life changer.”
Palin, who earned a journalist degree in college, sued the Times for unspecified damages in 2017, about a decade after she burst onto the national stage as the Republican vice-presidential nominee.
Her lawsuit stemmed from an editorial about gun control published after U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise, a Louisiana Republican, was wounded in 2017 when a man with a history of anti-GOP activity opened fire on a Congressional baseball team practice in Washington.
In the editorial, the Times wrote that before the 2011 mass shooting in Arizona that severely wounded former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords and killed six others, Palin’s political action committee had contributed to an atmosphere of violence by circulating a map of electoral districts that put Giffords and 19 other Democrats under stylized crosshairs.
In a correction, The Times said the editorial had “incorrectly stated that a link existed between political rhetoric and the 2011 shooting” and that it had “incorrectly described” the map.
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A tearful Bennet apologized to Palin from the witness stand when he testified last week, saying he was tormented by the error and worked urgently to correct it after readers complained to the newspaper.
Felicia Ellsworth, an attorney for the Times, said the jury cannot find the newspaper or Bennet liable because it would have to conclude that the error was intentionally published by editors who knew it was wrong.
“There’s not been one shred of evidence showing anything other than an honest mistake,” she said.
Ellsworth said Bennet and the Times “corrected the record loudly, clearly and quickly” once the error was discovered.
The lawyer pointed out that several Times editors testified consistently about the effort to correct the error and the importance they placed on accuracy while Palin’s claims were “supported by nothing other than her say so.”
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And she noted that Palin’s status as a public figure meant that the jury would have to find “actual malice” to find in her favor.
“To Governor Palin, this is just another opportunity to take on fake news. To James Bennet, the truth matters,” Ellsworth said.
In February 2022, Judge Jed S. Rakoff rejected Palin’s claims in a ruling issued while a jury deliberated. The judge then let jurors deliver their verdict, which also went against Palin.
The trial is occurring after the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan restored the case last year.
The appeals court said Rakoff’s dismissal ruling improperly intruded on the jury’s work. It also cited flaws in the trial, saying there was erroneous exclusion of evidence, an inaccurate jury instruction and a mistaken response to a question from the jury.
Alaska could see a boom in oil production next year, a sharp reversal for a state that has seen decades of declining production, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
EIA estimates in a forecast released this week that Alaska could see a 13 percent rise in production compared to 2025 — the largest annual increase for the state since the 1980s — thanks to two new projects on the North Slope.
ConocoPhillips’ Nuna project came online in December 2024 and is expected to produce 20,000 barrels a day at its peak. Pikka Phase 1, jointly owned by Santos and Repsol, is slated to start production in early 2026 and could reach peak production of 80,000 barrels a day later that year.
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The state last year averaged about 421,000 barrels a day in production, according to EIA, and could be roughly flat this year. The agency estimates that oil production could grow to 477,000 barrels a day next year. Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy, a Republican, cheered the forecast in a statement.
The trans-Alaska pipeline near Pump Station 1 in Prudhoe Bay. (Marc Lester / ADN file)
A federal pipeline agency has proposed a $243,800 fine against the operator of the 800-mile trans-Alaska pipeline, related to a small crude oil leak in a pipeline heating system north of Fairbanks.
The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration says the Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. committed several “probable violations” related to the “overpressure event and leak” in the heating system on Nov. 13, 2024, the agency says in the Oct. 2 notice.
A second small leak was also discovered soon afterward as the heating system was under repair.
The agency’s proposed fine is its first for Alyeska Pipeline in at least a decade, agency records show.
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The heating system, built in 2020, cost more than $10 million to build, records show.
Since the leak, Alyeska Pipeline has not operated the heating system, except for testing or maintenance, because other alternatives are available, said Michelle Egan, a spokesperson with Alyeska Pipeline.
Less than a cup of oil leaked, she said.
There was no environmental impact or risk to the main pipeline because the heating system was isolated from it, she said.
“We would need to work with PHMSA if we decide that there’s some reason we do need to use the system,” she said.
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The 800-mile pipeline is critical infrastructure in Alaska, transporting the North Slope crude oil that underpins much of the state economy. The pipeline has transported 18 billion barrels of crude oil since starting in 1977.
The heating system, built at Mile 238 of the pipeline near Coldfoot, consists in part of lengthy, 8-inch pipe to divert some crude oil from the mainline. The oil is heated for reinjection back into the mainline.
The system was designed to help prevent winter icing.
The November leak occurred when a pressure relief valve froze and couldn’t operate, after it had been tested with water, the report says. The failure of the valve caused the system to exceed the maximum operating pressure.
The valve was insulated for outdoor service but lacked heat tape, the report says.
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Before the leak, the valve provided “overpressure” protection in the heating system 13 times. But Alyeska Pipeline only identified these recurring “abnormal” events during the investigation into the November leak, “long after many of these events occurred,” the report says.
The recurring events and absence of records indicated that “response, investigation, and correction of the operation of the safety device had not occurred” as required by federal law, the report says.
No high-pressure alarm was configured for the heating system, though pressure information “was available via controller screens and locally,” the report says.
The crude-oil weep from the flange set was not found until Nov. 25, 2024. The pipeline company determined on Nov. 26 that the “overpressure event” occurred, the federal agency says.
The pipeline company has until Dec. 17 to respond to the proposed penalty, Egan said.
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“We’re going through that as thoroughly as we can, and continuing to work with them to make sure that we’re in compliance,” she said.
The notice was signed by Dustin Hubbard, director of the western region for the Office of Pipeline Safety in Colorado.
The proposed fine comes on the heels of a separate proposed compliance order issued by the agency in April.
That order raises concerns about inspections for possible cracks in the main pipe.
Alyeska Pipeline is “still working with PHMSA on the issue of running a crack tool,” Egan said in an emailed statement on Wednesday.
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“Our system integrity engineers assess the conditions of the pipe routinely and believe our current methods provide sufficient analysis to detect and manage issues,” she said.
Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. is owned by affiliates of Alaska’s major oil producers.
Harvest Alaska, an affiliate of Hilcorp, is the largest owner at 49%, while ConocoPhillips Transportation Alaska and ExxonMobil Pipeline Co. own the rest.
For thousands of Alaska’s federal workers, the government shutdown that ended last week was the latest episode in a tumultuous year, as President Donald Trump has sought to drastically reduce the size of the federal civilian workforce.
Since the beginning of the year, Alaska’s federal workers have been offered buyouts, been subject to mass firings and watched as programs they administer were cut or altered.
Alaska — with one of the highest concentrations of civil servants in the country — stands to see an outsized impacts from these changes. As of last year, Alaska had more than 15,000 federal employees.
Are you a current or former federal employee in Alaska who has been impacted by these changes? We’d like to hear your story.
