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CNN’s Defamation Lawyer Repeatedly Lied to Judge, Forced to Apologize to Navy Vet
Largely lost in the coverage of witness testimony, breaking news of the liability verdict against CNN, and the subsequent settlement on punitive damages, was how CNN’s lead counsel David Axelrod (not to be confused with the CNN commentator of the same name) had repeatedly lied to Judge William Scott Henry and was dressed down in front of the court and streamed around the world because of it. At one point, Judge Henry announced that Axelrod’s “credibility with me … is about none” and forced him to apologize to Plaintiff and Navy veteran Zachary Young for baselessly suggesting he was the liar.
One of Axelrod’s biggest lies with the most consequences for his defense of CNN was a mischaracterization of interactions he had with the media pool in the room; falsely suggesting to Judge Henry that we had all “quickly consented” to not capturing images of their star witness, Ralf Otto.
Otto flew in from German to testify on behalf of CNN but didn’t want his face shown out of a non-specific fear that it could harm his charity work in sensitive locations. Despite not doing through the proper channels well in advance to have his identity protected, on January 14, Axelrod falsely claimed to Judge Henry that he got the consent of the entire media pool present to not show Otto’s face:
It’s your discretion to prohibit media coverage of a particular trial participant. We are not asking for you to close the courtroom. We're not asking for you to stop the cameras. We're not asking you to stop the video. What we're doing is asking for actually a very limited, very limited use of your discretion. And that would simply be allow the cameras to show the rest of the courtroom, allow the audio to go forward and simply rule that the media in the court and the live stream should not capture Mr. Otto's face. Indeed, the media that's here quickly consented that that would be fine with them.
But that was not true.
As one of the media outlets in the room (every day for a week and a half at that point), NewsBusters was one of the outlets not consulted; thus, this author spoke out (Click "expand"):
JUDGE HENRY: And I will make it- that you affirmatively stated that, for any media that is here in the courtroom, is there any objection to the defense’s motion?
FONDACARO: Mr. Axelrod stated that he talked to the entire pool of reporters, but he did not talk to Joey Wulfsohn [Fox News] or I [inaudible]. He may have talked to the cameraman or the pool photographer, but he did not talk to us.
AXELROD: Uh, yeah, we, uh, talked to the camera people.
JUDGE HENRY: All right. Yeah.
FONDACARO: We’ve been also able to show the rest of the witnesses that have testified in this very important, uh, story to the public interest that one of the largest cable news organizations in the country so it should be- that we should be able to show all the witnesses they’ve been putting up as well, as well as all the witnesses the defense has been putting up as well.
“We think it is appropriate for the court require notice to the media of the hearing on the state’s motion to curtail electronic and still photography,” Judge Henry explained. “You made the representation that you talked to the media here, but it doesn’t sound like you talked to all the media and we don’t have all the media’s consent, with appropriate notice.”
Judge Henry ordered that the pool cameraman and photographer would capture images of Otto for the benefit of the entire pool, including print reporters. This order resulted in Otto refusing to take the stand, not even appearing in the courtroom.
The week prior, on January 9, Axelrod had produced a Helios Global contract signed by Young but not signed by a representative of the company. With the document in hand, Axelrod proclaimed it was evidence that Young was supposedly able to get work after the CNN report and he had “perpetrated a fraud on this court.”
Young later testified in court (as well as previously in his deposition) that Helios offered a service to carry security clearances so they don’t go in active and the person doesn’t lose it; something Axelrod claimed in court “doesn’t make any sense.”
But he knew exactly what it was, because during the following week, Axelrod turned over a new document he had since January 2 to Young’s legal team showing that Helios had dropped Young’s security clearance.
And as evidence to how underhanded a lawyer he was, Axelrod only turned it over after his expert witness testified to the jury just hours prior (on January 14) that Young still had a security clearance and he could get almost any security contracting gig he wanted (Click "expand"):
MR. BAILEY: Mr. Young testified that he has a security clearance today. Does that impact what jobs he’s qualified for?
RIC HUMPHRIES: Absolutely. Without a security clearance in this field, you’re kind of – you’re dead.
BAILEY: The fact that he maintains his security, does that impact his ability to get a job?
HUMPHRIES: It helps tremendously.
(…)
BAILEY: So, it’s your opinion that Mr. Young remains qualified for a number of these jobs you mentioned today?
HUMPHRIES: I do.
The next day (January 15), when the court could hear arguments about the Helios document showing Young had lost his security clearance, Young’s lead counsel Vel Freedman called out CNN’s legal team for trying to deceive the court (Click "expand"):
FREEDMAN: They put an expert on the stand yesterday that said he still has a security clearance. He's great you can do all the work he wants. They knew it's not true. They had their expert get on the stand and say, ‘he's got a security clearance, no problem, he can get work.’ They knew it was not true. We did not. They did.
AXELROD: That is false. Mr. Young testified he still has a security clearance. We had no idea that that's not true.
FREEDMAN: Your Honor, if I may, they knew it's not true because Helios Global told them it's not true on this January 2, 2025, in their letter, they said, “we retained Mr. Young's clearance through approximately November 2022 in the event these requirements re-emerged, but they did not. Ultimately, we administratively dropped Mr. Young from our security clearance roles, thus ending any relationship/affiliation.”
So, CNN knew that there was no security clearance in place, something we didn't know because we didn't have this communication.
Axelrod proceeded to claim Young was the one who had tried to pull one over on the court because he had signed a wet contract and sent it off for Helios to sign and retain; thus supposedly shirking his discovery obligation as a person suing CNN (which still didn’t make sense because Young signed the contract in December 2021 and didn’t retain Freedman until February 2022).
Judge Henry saw right through what Axelrod was trying to do and immediately poked holes in it, calling into question how it was Young’s responsibility when the document was under Helios’s “possession, custody, or control.” “That’s not what I was suggesting,” Axelrod claimed.
“It was! It was! You said he can’t shirk his discovery responsibilities by signing a document, sending off, and then say ‘I don’t have it!’” Judge Henry exclaimed. “I'm tired of these blatant misrepresentations that are being made, and they're being made by both y'all. And maybe they're not 100 percent lies, maybe they're leaving out a little bit of the truth.”
After returning from his chambers where he read the documents and looked up precedent, Judge Henry had something to say to Axelrod, calling out his constant lying:
I take that as a complete insult to me, as the court in this case. You were saying that he completely lied and misrepresented despite the fact he acknowledged that he had a security clearance with Helios Global, which again is another misrepresentation of the court which supports your argument that you were being made. So, right now your credibility with me, Mr. Axelrod is about none if you understand that.
Later that night, after the lead-counsels were out of the room and after their teams were done negotiating jury instructions for the night, Judge Henry noted that twice that afternoon Axelrod had referred to him as Mr. Henry and not “Judge.” Judge Henry told CNN’s team that that he was chalking it up to a mistake and to warn Axelrod that it better not happen again.
He goes on:
“But just say something to him when you get home tonight…It may have been completely innocent…It better not be something he was pissed off about.”
— Jessica Costescu (@JessicaCostescu) January 16, 2025
The next day (January 16), Judge Henry ordered Axelrod to apologize to Young. “Mr. Young, I apologize for the statements I made about the Helios contract and what it represented. I said you lied during your deposition. Your deposition testimony was similar to what we saw in the Ian Conway letter and for that I do apologize,” he said while not looking at Young.
Young did not accept the apology.
It's worth noting that on January 10, Axelrod also smeared Young's expert witness, decorated Major General James V. Young (no relation) by suggesting he was okay with letting a hypothetical little girl die.
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