CNN Settles Defamation Lawsuit

CNN agreed on Friday afternoon to settle a defamation lawsuit filed by security contractor Zachary Young, who argued that his reputation and business were destroyed after he was featured in a November 2021 segment on the network about the high costs of evacuating Afghans from the country after the Taliban took power.

The Washington Post reports the settlement was announced just four hours after a Florida jury had found the network liable for defamation and awarded Young $5 million for lost business opportunities as well as pain and suffering. The jury also had found Young deserving of punitive damages and was expected to deliver a verdict later Friday on how much the network would have to pay.

Because punitive damages are intended to punish the network and deter future defamatory statements, Young’s team was planning to ask for millions of dollars in damages. The monetary size of the settlement was not announced by the parties.

NEW: Jury finds CNN liable for defaming U.S. Navy veteran who helped with Afghanistan evacuation. pic.twitter.com/RfJM6luR4c

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“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,” a CNN spokesperson said in a statement.

“We are very happy we cleared our client’s name, obtained a punitive damages verdict against a media defendant, and then resolved the case so our client can move on,” said Devin “Velvel” Freedman, a lawyer representing Young. “These are the sort of things trial lawyers love.”

Zachary Young

Throughout the two-week trial in Panama City, jurors heard from a parade of CNN reporters, producers and executives who sought to explain the reporting process that led to the segment, which described Young’s work coordinating paid evacuations of Afghans and the high prices he quoted to extricate people who feared for their lives.

Young testified last week that there was “a very immediate and devastating impact on [his] life” after the network aired the story. His lawyers argued to the jury that CNN had accused him of criminal activity because an on-screen graphic referred to “black markets” while Young’s face and messages appeared on-screen, even though the term was not used in the story itself. Various CNN employees testified that they viewed the term to mean unregulated markets.

The primary reporter on the story, CNN chief national security correspondent Alexander Marquardt, testified on Monday that he had no intent to harm Young and did not produce a “hit piece.” All along, CNN employees told the jury that they had exercised care in producing, editing and publishing the story, which was approved by the network’s multitiered internal review process.

Throughout the trial, CNN’s employees and witnesses faced tough questioning from jurors who submitted often-critical queries to be asked by the judge that indicated some disapproval of the network’s reporting methods. “Do you feel that Americans are obligated to speak to CNN?” one juror asked reporter Katie Bo Lillis after she finished her testimony Wednesday afternoon. “Do people have a right not to be named in a news story?” asked another.

From the beginning, legal observers speculated that the jury pool might be unfavorable to CNN. About 73 percent of Bay County, where the trial was held, voted in the November presidential election for Donald Trump, who has demonized CNN as “fake news.”