Sarah Palin arrived at a Manhattan federal courthouse Wednesday holding hands with her “buddy,” ex-Rangers player Ron Duguay, ahead of proceedings in her defamation trial against the New York Times.
Palin, wearing a dark-pink coat, black skirt and sunglasses, stopped and put her arm around Duguay in front of photographers who were gathered in front of the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Courthouse on Worth Street.
Duguay, wearing a black coat and sunglasses, smiled widely as photographers snapped photos of the pair.
Last week, Palin told The Post in the cafeteria of the courthouse that Duguay was her “buddy” after Page Six reported the pair was seeing each other.
“We have hockey in common,” said Palin, who was carrying a face mask with a Rangers logo on it.
They’ve been an item since late last year, Page Six reported.
Palin is expected to take the stand in the trial later this week.
On Tuesday, Palin’s attorney, Shane Vogt, questioned James Bennet, the former editorial page editor of the Times, about the 2017 editorial at the center of the lawsuit.
Bennet took responsibility for writing language into the editorial that linked a map circulated by Palin’s political action committee and the 2011 mass shooting that wounded US Rep. Gabby Giffords.
In her suit, Palin claimed the Times defamed her in the piece, which asserted there was a “clear” link that showed the gunman in the 2011 shooting was politically incited to open fire, in part because of the map circulated by Palin’s PAC.
The map showed congressional districts, including Giffords’, under stylized cross hairs.
No link between the map and the shooting existed and the Times corrected the editorial the day after it was published.
