A Navy veteran has filed a defamation lawsuit against CNN after the network allegedly suggested he participated in a scam taking advantage of Afghans desperate to flee the country.
Zachary Young filed a $1 billion lawsuit against the department on June 12. The lawsuit pertained to a November 2021 segment by reporter Alex Marquardt that aired on “The Lead with Jake Tapper.” The article portrayed Young’s evacuation operation as exploiting Afghans by charging exorbitant fees for removal from Afghanistan after the Taliban took over. In testimony Tuesday, CNN national security editor Thomas Lumley was asked how he would characterize the story. (Related: ‘Can I ask you a question?’: 5 Scott Jennings jabs that angered CNN panelists)
“This story is as full of holes as Swiss cheese,” Lumley said in an email presented in court. According to A colleague described the story to Fox News reporter Joseph A. Wolfsohn as “80% emotional.” While on the stand, Mr. Lumley was confronted with an email in which he expressed his doubts, and Mr. Wolfsohn said the story was accurate and that he stood by it. reported.
The trial began on January 6 and was attended by Mr. Young’s attorney. tell According to FOX News, a jury in Bay County, Florida, found that the station did not “verify any facts” before airing a November 2021 report, while at the same time denying CNN officials the derogatory term used against Young. He also mentioned the words. Judge William A. Henry ruled in October that Young “did not engage in any illegal or criminal conduct” during his efforts to evacuate people from Afghanistan (FOX News) reported.
Mr. Friedman later elicited a message from Mr. Lumley that Mr. Marquardt’s report was a “mess” and that he “wanted it to live as a television production,” adding, “I don’t even know if it can be easily salvaged.”
Stories are “full of holes like Swiss cheese” and colleagues say they are “80% emotion and 20% vague facts” pic.twitter.com/NZ1EUMfnbX
— Joseph A. Wolfsohn (@JosephWulfsohn) January 14, 2025
“I’m going to nail this Zachary Young bastard,” Marquardt said in an email, to which another CNN employee responded, “I’ll stick with it, cowboy,” according to court documents.
Marquardt testified Monday that he found no evidence that Young committed any crimes, and later said Young was “just part of the story,” Fox News reported. reported. Marquardt, CNN’s senior national security correspondent at the time, denied that he was “trying to oust anyone.”
Earlier in the proceedings, the Army major general testified after the CNN show that he did not intend to hire Young, saying hiring a Navy veteran was “too risky.” According to On Fox News.
CNN asked for According to Fox News, the move was to keep the jury from learning about Marquardt’s subsequent pay raise and promotion to director of national security that he received from the agency.
Multiple CNN employees testified in court that they disagreed with the network’s decision to apologize for the story, and Fuzz Hogan, who was a senior editor at CNN at the time the segment aired, said he stood by the story. , FOX News said. reported. (Related: ‘Are you saying I’m not a Christian?’: Scott Jennings furious when CNN host uses religion to call Jordan Neely a ‘victim’)
“In November, we aired a story about Afghans desperately trying to flee the country in the face of high payments that are beyond the reach of the average Afghan,” CNN host Pamela Brown told viewers in March 2022 while filling in for Tapper on “The Lead.”
“This story included introductions and banners throughout the story that referenced the ‘black market’. It was a mistake to use the term “black market” in the story. The article also included reports about Zachary Young. “I did not intend to suggest that Mr. Young was participating in the black market,” Brown said. “We regret the error and apologize to Mr. Young.”
CNN did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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