'Of course she's unvaccinated': Judge unimpressed after Sarah Palin tests positive for COVID on first day of defamation trial against New York Times - delaying the trial for a week

 Sarah Palin has tested positive for COVID-19 on the same day that her defamation trial against the New York Times is set to begin, leaving the judge presiding over the case very unimpressed as her trial is delayed by a week.

'She is of course unvaccinated,' US District Judge Jed Rakoff told the Manhattan courthouse as he announced her positive test on Monday morning.

Palin was due to appear in court in person this morning, but tested positive on an at-home test ahead of the jury selection. She was then retested this morning.  

Jury selection for the trial will now only go ahead on February 3 after Palin's attorney insisted that she wanted to be present for the proceedings instead of appearing over Zoom. 

The 2008 Republican U.S. vice presidential candidate and former Alaska governor, who previously tested positive for COVID-19 in March 2021, told a Turning Point USA rally in December that Dr. Anthony Fauci's inconsistent comment about natural immunity dissuaded her from getting vaccinated.  

'It'll be over my dead body that I get a shot. I will not. I won't do it and they better not touch my kids either,' she said at the time.

After her March diagnosis, she encouraged people to wear masks and take the pandemic seriously.  

Palin, 57, has accused the Times and its former editorial page editor James Bennet of damaging her reputation in a June 14, 2017, editorial linking her to a 2011 mass shooting in Arizona that killed six people and wounded U.S. Representative Gabby Giffords.

Palin is being represented by two Florida lawyers who spearheaded wrestler Hulk Hogan's case against Gawker, which published a sex tape depicting him. A jury awarded him $140 million and the publication was shut down. 

Sarah Palin has tested positive for COVID-19 on the same day that her defamation trial against the New York Times is set to begin, leaving the judge presiding over the case very unimpressed as her trial is delayed by a week 

Palin, 57, has accused the Times and its former editorial page editor James Bennet (right) of damaging her reputation in a June 14, 2017, editorial linking her to a 2011 mass shooting in Arizona that killed six people and wounded U.S. Representative Gabby Giffords. Pictured: Bennett arrives at court on Monday

The editorial, headlined 'America's Lethal Politics,' was published after a shooting at a baseball practice in Alexandria, Virginia where U.S. Representative Steve Scalise, a top Republican from Louisiana, was wounded.

It said 'the link to political incitement was clear' between the 2011 shooting and a map circulated by Palin's political action committee putting 20 Democrats including Giffords under 'stylized cross hairs.'

The Times quickly corrected the editorial, saying it wrongly stated that political rhetoric and the 2011 shooting were linked, and Bennet has said he did not intend to blame Palin.

New York Times editoral board member Elizabeth Williamson arrives at the Manhattan courthouse on Monday. The trial has been delayed by a week

But Palin said the disputed material fit Bennet's 'preconceived narrative,' and that he was experienced enough to know what his words meant.

The trial is expected to last five days. 

In December, Palin told a Turning Point USA in Phoenix rally that Fauci's 'inconsistent' comments about natural immunity that has dissuaded her from getting vaccinated.

'Do you remember he said that if you had Covid, you would be naturally immune?' Palin said during an on-stage interview with Charlie Kirk, the co-founder of TPUSA.

'So at the time we were led to believe we wouldn't need to have the shot. Well, then they changed their tune. Those of us who have had Covid, they're telling us that even though we've had it - we have natural immunity - now that we still have to get a shot.'

She added: 'And it'll be over my dead body that I get a shot. I will not. I won't do it and they better not touch my kids either.'

The former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee tested positive for COVID-19 in March, as did members of her family. After her diagnosis, she encouraged the public to wear masks and take the pandemic seriously

Last year March, Palin told PEOPLE magazine that she and some of her family members tested positive for COVID-19, including her 12-year-old son Trig, who has Down syndrome.

Palin and her son 'buckled down in isolated quarantine' but then 'symptoms started overnight with a slight fever and sore muscles,' she said. 

'As confident as I'd like to be about my own health, and despite my joking that I'm blessed to constantly breathe in the most sterile air, my case is perhaps one of those that proves anyone can catch this,' the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee and television personality said. 

The virus worked its way through her household, with her daughter first exhibiting symptoms, Palin said.

'[O]ne of my daughters awoke to having lost her sense of taste and smell [and] immediately had a positive COVID test, then was quarantined in isolation,' she said. 

After initially testing negative, Palin said she developed coronavirus symptoms 'overnight' and suffered a fever, muscle soreness and loss of taste and smell.

It was unmistakable that 'COVID caught me,' she said.

'That day I finally tested positive — like millions of other Americans,' she said.

Palin then observed symptoms in son Trig.