A New York judge rejected a request from former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be granted a new trial in her defamation suit against The New York Times.

On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff wrote that Palin had failed to produce a “speck of evidence” indicating she should be granted a new trial in the case after losing a defamation trial in February. The suit stemmed from a Times editorial erroneously linking her political action committee to a 2011 shooting in an Arizona parking lot of then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

The Hill reports:

Palin’s attorneys had asked Rakoff to recuse himself from the case, arguing he was biased against her. They cited questions he had asked the jury in the previous trial and instructions he gave them before deliberating a verdict.

“In actuality, none of these was erroneous, let alone a basis for granting Palin a new trial,” Rakoff wrote, The Associated Press reported.

In February, a jury found the New York Times not liable for defamation against Palin.

While the jury in Palin’s case was still deliberating a verdict, Rakoff made the rare decision to announce he believed Palin’s lawyers had provided no “legally sufficient evidentiary basis” and said he would move to have it dismissed.

On Wednesday, Rakoff said that Palin’s legal team had failed to prove the Times had acted with actual malice toward her. Proving defamation is notoriously difficult for public officials, the New York Times hasn’t lost a defamation suit in over 50 years.

“And the striking thing about the trial here was that Palin, for all her earlier assertions, could not in the end introduce even a speck of such evidence,” Rakoff said.

Palin is currently running to fill the seat held for decades by the late Rep. Don Young.