Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin plans to subpoena close to two dozen New York Times reporters, editors and other workers as part of her defamation lawsuit against the newspaper, it was revealed in court documents Wednesday.
In a motion arguing that the case be dismissed, lawyers for the New York Times complained that Palin’s legal team has served notice that she plans to subpoena “twenty-three non-party current and former Times reporters, editors and other employees — most of whom had nothing to do with the editorial at issue.”
The subpoenas are part of Palin’s effort to obtain “documents that might reveal, among other things, their ‘negative feelings’ toward her,” the Times told the judge.
Palin’s legal team also intends to ask the paper to produce “every internal communication it has had about her since 2011,” they said.
The Times complained about Palin’s discovery requests in a Manhattan federal court filing reiterating its request to have Palin’s defamation lawsuit tossed.
Palin is suing the Gray Lady over a June editorial linking one of her political action committee ads to a 2011 mass shooting that severely wounded Arizona Democrat Gabby Giffords and killed six people, including a 9-year-old girl.
The Times has claimed that Palin has no case because she cannot prove malice, the legal standard for claiming defamation.
Palin’s lawyers claim the Times knew the statements in the editorial were false, but “fabricated the link anyway” in order to drive web traffic.