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CNN Suffers Massive Defeat in Defamation Suit Involving Navy Veteran

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  January 17, 2025 2:00 PM

It’s been a case that’s been ongoing for months, though it’s been buried in a host of other matters, not least the 2024 election, the war in the Middle East, and many other issues that for sure suffocated a lawsuit that seemed poised to gut CNN to its core. ABC News isn’t the only network that got in trouble recently. 

“The Most Trusted Name in News” ran a segment in 2021 about our shambolic exit from Afghanistan, accusing a Navy veteran of exploiting the Afghan people who were trying to flee the country. Some veterans deployed to Afghanistan to get refugees out once it became clear the Biden administration’s incompetence was going to leave people behind. CNN accused the plaintiff, Zachary Young, of “exploit[ing]” “desperate Afghans.” After a lengthy discovery process and a days’ long trial, the network has been found liable and must award Young punitive, emotional, and economic damages. The damage so far is $5 million. The punitive damages are to be determined. Newsbusters’ Nicholas Fondacaro has done some excellent reporting on this case and was present at the courthouse in Panama City, Florida, for the trial:

On Friday, a jury of six in Florida’s 14th Circuit Court in Bay County has found CNN liable for the defamation of Navy veteran Zachary Young and that he was entitled economic and emotional damages, a ruling that proved CNN was not worthy of their moniker “the most trusted name in news.” They also found that CNN’s reporters had demonstrated expressed malice, actual malice, and outrageous behavior, which opened the door for a massive punitive damages judgement. 

The jury also found Young was entitled to $4 million in economic damages and $1 million in emotional damages. They also ruled that CNN should be subject to punitive damages (the amount to be determined). 

A ruling of liable meant the jury had determinedCNN had published the defamatory material, the material was “of and concerning” Young, the materials that was published was false, said false material rose to the level of defamation, CNN was negligent in their news reporting about Young, and that Young had sustained damages as a result of the material. 

The defamatory report originally aired on CNN’s The Lead with Jake Tapper on November 11, 2021. Tapper led into the segment by painting an image of “black market” hustlers who charged “exorbitant fees” taking advantage of desperate people.

[…] 

The jury also found CNN had operated with expressed and actual malice. The evidence presented to the jury was clear; Marquardt had messaged colleagues that he was going to “nail this Zachary Young Mfucker” while calling the report was going to be “your funeral bucko.” CNN editors called him a “shit” and “a shitbag” who had a “punchable face.”

At the same time, senior editor Tom Lumley was warning that Marquardt’s report was “80% emotion and 20% obscured fact” and “full of holes like Swiss cheese.”

During the trial, Alex Marquardt, the senior reporter at the heart of this circus, refused to apologize, which isn’t shocking:

The key moments from this time on the witness stand were when he refused to apologize to Navy veteran and Plaintiff Zachary Young, doubled down on the false assertions that Young was interested in taking money from Afghans, and getting pressed by plaintiff’s counsel on being war profiteer himself. 

And perhaps most telling were the nine questions submitted to Marquardt by the jury, which appeared to suggest CNN was in trouble in their eyes. 

Marquardt was under pressure from the get-go with plaintiff’s lead counsel Vel Freedman asking him if he had reached out to Audible and Bloomberg, two of Young’s clients, to fact-check if he had helped them. 

"The story was not about Bloomberg and Audible," Marquardt testified. Reading from Marquardt’s deposition testimony, Freedman noted that Marquardt said: "I have not asked about the details [about the evacuations]...I did not want to know..." 

Marquardt doubled down on that position on the stand. “The corporate evacuations were not something I was interested in,” Marquardt testified; corporate evacuations were all Young did.

On the lack of interest in following up with Young’s clients, Marquardt says he didn't reach out to Audible because "it didn't make sense" to him personally because he couldn't understand "why was Audible operating in Afghanistan" because they make audio books. 

Marquardt admitted that he had evidence of actual scams being perpetrated against Afghans trying to get out, and admitted that they didn't include them in the story about Young:  

"This was not something we did in this story [about Young]...At the end we didn't report about scams..." 

Despite the court ruling on the facts of the case being that Young did not take money from Afghans, Marquardt falsely testifies that Young was charging "regular people" and not corporations.

We'll update you on the punitive damages when we have a number.

I know Nick mentioned this above, but man did this Acosta monologue not age well at all:

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