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CNN Under Fire As Navy Veteran Testifies In $1 Billion Defamation Case
CNN is under fire as Navy veteran Zachary Young testifies in his $1 billion lawsuit against the network, telling judge and jury that a CNN report that aired November 11, 2021, had “destroyed his reputation and business.”
Young’s suit alleges that the segment — which aired on “The Lead” with anchor Jake Tapper and featured reporting by correspondent Alex Marquardt — incorrectly implied that he had profited illegally from his efforts to aid in the evacuation of “desperate Afghans” who were trying to flee the country in the wake of President Joe Biden’s disastrous military withdrawal from Afghanistan months earlier.
As reported by Fox News Digital, “14th Judicial Circuit Court Judge William S. Henry, who is presiding over the trial in Bay County, Florida, has already ruled that Young ‘did not act illegally or criminally’ despite what the network reported on air. Judge Henry has also declared the court found Young ‘did not take money from Afghans.'”
CNN’s reporting painted a very different picture, however. Twice before the November 11 segment even aired, Tapper had teased a story about “desperate Afghans still trying to escape the country being preyed on by folks demanding that they pay up big time to get out.”
Tapper then introduced Marquardt’s report, saying, “Afghans trying to get out of the country face a black market full of promises, demands of exorbitant fees, and no guarantee of safety or success.”
Marquardt’s report focused on Young, claiming that the Navy veteran had asked for “prices well beyond the reach of most Afghans” in exchange for his efforts to help them escape the Taliban-controlled country.
“In a text message, he told CNN that Afghans trying to leave are expected to have sponsors pay for them,” Marquardt explained, also noting that Young had attributed the “volatile” high costs attached to evacuation to “environmental realities.”
Marquardt went on to say that Young had declined to share a detailed explanation of the costs, adding, “In another message, that person offering those evacuations, Zachary Young, he wrote, ‘Availability is extremely limited, and demand is high’… he goes on to say, ‘That’s how economics works, unfortunately.'”
The segment concluded with interviews of two anonymous Afghans — with whom Young says he never had contact — who told CNN that they hoped to evacuate family members from the country, but were afraid they could not afford to do so.
Young’s defense is set to focus on a number of text messages that his attorneys say make it clear that some at the network were aware prior to airing the story that it was “full of holes.”
Young’s attorney Kyle Roche, during Tuesday’s opening statements, claimed that the CNN report was “reckless” and that the network had “set out to destroy Zach’s reputation.”
“They didn’t care about the truth. They cared about theater and they cared about ratings,” he said, previewing internal messages from CNN editors who stated that Marquardt’s report was “full of holes like Swiss cheese” and “80 percent emotion and 20 percent obscured fact.”
During Young’s testimony, which began Tuesday and continued on Wednesday, a series of messages between Marquardt and Young were presented as evidence. The exchange showed that Marquardt had told Young he planned to go ahead with the story, but then only gave him a two-hour window in which to respond to multiple questions.
That message came in the night, Vienna-time.Young responded 5-minutes later: "I will need some time to review and provide comment."Marquardt told Young that the story was "running this afternoon DC time."This would be in just a couple of hours. pic.twitter.com/RoAnDsV99t
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) January 8, 2025
Young replied, saying that the story’s claims were not accurate and the deadline was not reasonable — and threatened legal action against the network if they ran with it anyway.
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"That's definitely not a realistic deadline. In any case, I can tell you for sure, some of your facts/assertions for not accurate, and it they are published, i will seek legal damages," Young warned CNN's Alex Marqardt.The warning was not heeded. pic.twitter.com/fLwCNb3M9K
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) January 8, 2025
Following the report, Young said on the stand that he had been in therapy and placed on medication after suffering multiple panic attacks a day. He also said that he’d not been able to work since the report came out — and that when he’d tried to offer his assistance with evacuations in Sudan, his posts were “flooded” with “hate echoing what CNN said” in the reports about him.
Young testified that he tried to offer evacuations during the crisis in Sudan, but people flooded his LinkedIn post with hate echoing what CNN said about him.
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) January 8, 2025
When CNN attorney David Axelrod (no relation to the CNN commentator/former Obama staffer) got up to cross-examine Young, one of the first questions he asked referenced an old resume in which Young had cited his ability to “deal with stress.” Some speculated that line of questioning would later be used to attack his claims that the CNN report was damaging to his mental health.
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