CNN Hit With $5 Million Defamation Verdict in Florida Court (2)

CNN defamed a former intelligence operative, falsely claiming that he exploited Afghan citizens looking to flee the war-torn country after the US withdrawal in 2021, a Florida jury found. The company then settled with the US Navy veteran Friday, before the jury could assign punitive damages.

Zachary Young is entitled to $4 million for lost earnings and $1 million for pain and suffering, a Bay County jury said. The company and Young’s counsel didn’t respond to requests for details about their deal.

A CNN segment portrayed Young’s work helping corporate clients extract workers from Afghanistan after the government collapsed—as “exploitation” and part of deals in a black market. The former intelligence agent claimed this defamation irreparably tarnished a reputation that took him decades to build and led to millions of dollars in lost revenue.

“We remain proud of our journalists and are 100% committed to strong, fearless and fair-minded reporting at CNN, though we will of course take what useful lessons we can from this case,” the company said in a statement.

The verdict comes during a string of huge payouts in lawsuits against media companies.

Alex Jones is still in court proceedings after being hit with a roughly $1 billion verdict in a case brought by the parents of Sandy Hook shooting victims. Last year Fox Corp. settled a case brought by Dominion Voting Systems for nearly $800 million, and the Fox News owner is still litigating a similar $2.7 billion suit brought by Smartmatic USA Corp.

The eleventh-hour settlement, just as the jury was weighing punitive damages, potentially saved CNN from a similarly steep bill. Young’s team had sought roughly $1 billion in damages.

“The settlement amount is confidential. But we were happy to clear our client’s name, expose CNN’s actions, and then move on,” said Vel Freedman, Young’s lawyer and a partner at Freedman Normand Friedland LLP.

Fighting Punitive Damages

The trial featured testimony from CNN executives and on-air talent, including anchor Jake Tapper and correspondent Alex Marquardt who did the segment on the high cost of the evacuations. But in the background, internal messages showed CNN staffers were worried about the veracity of the story.

The company tried unsuccessfully to get the case thrown out on summary judgment, and to eliminate Young’s ability to bring punitive damages, but was inevitably tripped up by emails indicating the reporting lacked support.

But because CNN’s segment mentioned only Young by name in its reporting on the topic of high-cost extractions that Afghans couldn’t afford, and used defamatory language, a Florida appeals court said the Navy veteran could demand the jury seek a punishing reward.

“The overall gist of CNN’s reporting was that of an investigative report to uncover bad actors preying upon desperate people at a chaotic time,” Judge L. Clayton Roberts said in a decision last year.

“Young proffered CNN messages and emails that showed internal concern about the completeness and veracity of the reporting—the story is ‘a mess,’ ‘incomplete,’ not ‘fleshed out for digital,’ ‘the story is 80% emotion, 20% obscured fact,’ and ‘full of holes like Swiss cheese,’” he said.

Freedman Normand Friedland LLP represented Young. Shullman Fugate represented CNN.

The case is Young v. Cable News Network, Inc., Fla. Cir. Ct., No. 22000608CA, verdict returned 1/17/25.