Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin filed a defamation lawsuit Tuesday against The New York Times regarding an editorial that alleged ties between her political action committee and the 2011 Gabby Giffords shooting.
According to the New York Post, Palin claims the Times "violated the law and its own policies" by saying her group persuaded shooter Jared Lee Loughner to open fire at a public event held by Giffords, who at the time was serving in the House.
"Mrs. Palin brings this action to hold The Times accountable for falsely stating to millions of people that she, a devoted wife, mother and grandmother, who committed a substantial portion of her adult life to public service, is part of a pattern of 'lethal' politics and responsible for inciting an attack that seriously injured numerous people and killed six, including a nine-year-old girl who, at that time, was the same age as Mrs. Palin's youngest daughter," reads the lawsuit.
In a June 14 editorial that was published on the Times' website after House Majority Whip Steve Scalise and three others were shot during a baseball practice, the paper drew a link between Loughner and material that Palin's PAC had distributed.
"In 2011, Jared Lee Loughner opened fire in a supermarket parking lot, grievously wounding Representative Gabby Giffords and killing six people, including a 9-year-old girl," the editorial read.
"At the time, we and others were sharply critical of the heated political rhetoric on the right. Before the shooting, Sarah Palin's political action committee circulated a map that showed the targeted electoral districts of Ms. Giffords and 19 other Democrats under stylized cross hairs."
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