Jury Finds CNN Liable In Defamation Trial

UPDATE FRIDAY 12:45PM:   A jury found that CNN committed defamation against U.S. Navy veteran Zachary Young and is responsible for punitive damages on Friday after more than eight hours of deliberation. 

The jury ruled Young is awarded $4 million in lost earnings, $1 in personal damages such as pain and suffering and said that punitive damages are warranted against CNN.  The jury will now proceed to phase two of the trial to determine punitive damages. Lawyers on each side will have a chance to present evidence to determine punitive damages. 

Earlier story....

CNN has spent nearly two weeks in court defending itself against defamation allegations by a U.S. Navy veteran who helped evacuate people from Afghanistan in 2021. 

The network’s newsgathering practices are in focus, but the trial is playing out against a backdrop of intensifying distrust in the legacy news media, writ large. 

The jury began deliberations Thursday afternoon in a case that could leave CNN on the hook for millions of dollars in damages and send ripples through the industry. 

“Send a message that our news organizations must be held accountable,” Devin Freedman, a lawyer for plaintiff Zachary Young, told jurors.

“I’m not gonna ask you today to send a message. I’m gonna ask you to find the truth,” CNN’s lead counsel, David Axelrod, told jurors in his closing argument. “You all didn’t come and sit in this jury to deliver a message to big media.”

The five-minute segment at the center of the dispute aired in November 2021 and told viewers about the exploitation of Afghans trying to escape Taliban rule after the U.S.’s chaotic withdrawal.

The back half of the story focused on Young, an Austria-based security and intelligence consultant who had stints in the Navy and the Central Intelligence Agency. Young, CNN’s story said, posted messages on LinkedIn offering road evacuations from Kabul to Pakistan for $75,000 a vehicle, or $14,500-per-person flights to the United Arab Emirates.

A headline on screen read: “Afghans trying to flee Taliban face black markets, exorbitant fees, no guarantee of safety or success.”

Young, who sued CNN in 2022, claimed that the story’s portrayal rendered him an unemployable pariah in his industry and sent him into a spiral of depression and panic attacks.

The story, first airing on CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper” and narrated by its chief national security correspondent, Alex Marquardt, included a response from Young saying that his services were for Afghans with sponsors that could bear the costs. 

WATCH LIVE: Day Nine of the $1 billion defamation trial against CNN - Jury is in deliberations - New stream started on order of Judge following accidental sharing of confidential information to media pool https://t.co/9IYjLIe0IK

— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) January 16, 2025

Young alleged that CNN painted him as a villain illegally preying on people desperate to escape. The network, he said, failed to make it clear that his clients were corporations and nonprofits and that his prices reflected complex evacuation logistics. He said he conducted several operations—on behalf of Bloomberg, Audible and two nongovernmental groups—and found safe haven for nearly two dozen stranded Afghans.

Six jurors will decide whether CNN should be held liable and also whether Young can recover punitive damages, which can far exceed damages for financial losses.