PANAMA CITY, FLORIDA – The jurors stay undecided within the high-stakes defamation lawsuit towards CNN as deliberation will proceed into Friday morning.
The plaintiff, U.S. Navy veteran Zachary Younger, alleged that CNN smeared him by implying he illegally profited when serving to folks flee Afghanistan on the “black market” in the course of the Biden administration’s army withdrawal from the nation in 2021. Younger believes CNN “destroyed his reputation and business” by branding him an unlawful profiteer” who exploited “determined Afghans” during a November 11, 2021, segment that first aired on CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper.”
The jurors had been deliberating for nearly six hours. 14th Judicial Circuit Court Judge William S. Henry, who presided over the trial in Bay County, Florida, had previously negotiated with the jury twice to continue working longer into Thursday evening after the jury had requested to return Friday morning. Jurors were provided pizza after one of them said they were getting “hangry and drained.” They were dismissed at 9:18 p.m. CT.
The trial will resume at 8:15 a.m. CT on Friday.
The trial comes after three-plus years of litigation and a wild, sometimes chaotic, eight-day trial. The court previously ruled that Young “didn’t act illegally or criminally” regardless of what the community reported on air.
U.S. Navy veteran Zachary Young alleged that CNN smeared him by implying he illegally profited when helping people flee Afghanistan on the “black market” during the Biden administration’s military withdrawal from the country in 2021. (Jessica Costescu)
Tapper first teased the 2021 segment at the center of the suit by telling CNN viewers of “determined Afghans nonetheless attempting to flee the nation being preyed on by people demanding that they pay up huge time to get out.”
Later in the show, Tapper reminded viewers that the story on “determined Afghans” being “preyed upon” was up next.
Once the much-hyped segment began, Tapper said Marquardt found “Afghans attempting to get in another country face a black market stuffed with guarantees, calls for of exorbitant charges, and no assure of security or success.”
Tapper tossed to Marquardt, who said “determined Afghans are being exploited” and need to pay “exorbitant, typically unattainable quantities” to flee the country.
Marquardt then singled out Young, putting a picture of his face on the screen and saying his company was asking for $75,000 to transport a vehicle of passengers to Pakistan or $14,500 per person to end up in the United Arab Emirates.
“Costs nicely past the attain of most Afghans,” Marquardt advised viewers.
The segment at the heart of the trial first aired on “The Lead with Jake Tapper.” (CNN/Screenshot)
CNN then aired Marquardt allegedly attempting to call Young, who did not answer the phone.
“In a textual content message, he advised CNN that Afghans attempting to depart are anticipated to have sponsors pay for them,” Marquardt said, adding that Young told the network evacuation costs are “extremely risky and primarily based on environmental realities.”
Marquardt then said Young “repeatedly declined to interrupt down the price or say if he’s creating wealth,” before playing a clip of an anonymous sympathetic man who couldn’t afford to have his family evacuated from Afghanistan.
Marquardt went back to Young, saying he received another text message.
“In one other message, that individual providing these evacuations, Zachary Younger, he wrote, ‘Availability is extremely limited, and demand is high’… he goes on to say, ‘That’s how economics works, sadly,’” Marquardt told viewers.
Tapper responded, “Sadly, hmm,” earlier than thanking Marquardt for the report.
No different folks or firms had been named apart from Younger.
CNN DEFAMATION TRIAL: PLAINTIFF ACCUSES NETWORK OF FAKING CRITICAL PHONE CALL FOR ‘THEATER’
CNN host Jake Tapper and correspondent Alex Marquardt during the segment at the center of the defamation lawsuit. (CNN/Screenshot)
The segment was shared on social media and also repackaged for CNN’s website. The Marquardt report was re-aired Nov. 13 on Jim Acosta’s CNN show and multiple times on CNN International.
Every second of the segment was picked apart during the trial, with CNN’s legal team insisting Young was not a major element of the story and the plaintiff’s team suggesting the “black market” implication essentially ruined Young’s career as a defense contractor, where that language was specifically mentioned as grounds for termination in a contract he signed.
Young’s legal team obtained damning CNN internal messages through discovery repeatedly showing staffers expressing overt hostility towards the Navy veteran. Among those presented to the jury include one calling him a “shitbag” an “a–hole” one saying he has a “punchable face.”
Marquardt’s own message telling a colleague “we’re gonna nail this Zachary Younger mf—er” was often cited throughout the trial.
Young also testified that he rescued at least 22 women from Afghanistan, but that information was never reported by CNN.
At one point, CNN senior national security editor Thomas Lumley was grilled in court after internal messages showed he was highly skeptical of the “fairly flawed” report. Lumley was called as a witness after internal messages showed he felt the report was “stuffed with holes like Swiss cheese.”
CNN issued an on-air apology on March 25, 2022, when substitute anchor Pamela Brown was sitting in Tapper’s chair. However, several CNN staffers who took the witness stand said they didn’t feel the apology was necessary and CNN vice president Adam Levine testified that the apology was only issued for legal purposes.
The trial also included Judge Henry scolding CNNN lead counsel David Axelrod, who is not the on-air pundit with the same name, several times and forcing him to apologize to Young on the spot for calling him a “liar” when evidence proved he didn’t lie about failing to earn work in his field on the heels of the CNN segment airing.
Axelrod had insisted a document showing Young still had a security clearance was proof he was able to find work after the CNN segment aired, but it ultimately came out that the security clearance was dropped in 2022.
The trial resumes on Friday and will be streamed live on Fox Information Digital.
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