Tensions Mount Over Upcomng CNN Defamation Trial

The next big trial in media and entertainment will be Zachary Young’s libel case against CNN. 

Puck News reports Young, a military vet, helped evacuate Afghans fleeing the Taliban, only to find himself featured in a CNN segment about “black markets” in Afghanistan that were allegedly exploiting locals after Biden’s troop withdrawal. In Florida, Circuit Judge William Henry has ruled that CNN lacked evidence that Young did anything illegal, greenlighting a trial to begin on January 6 and allowing Young to pursue punitive damages.

As trial day approaches, tensions have escalated. Young’s legal team, led by Velvel Freedman, deposed CNN anchor Jake Tapper on his salary and his views of Trump. Freedman also raised the $787 million penalty Fox News paid Dominion to settle the voting machine vendor’s defamation case. Seemingly intent on drawing parallels between the Dominion case and Young’s, Freedman asked Tapper whether such a punishment would be enough to deter CNN from further defamatory conduct. 

At a court hearing last week, CNN’s attorney Charles Tobin blasted the deposition as a “total freak show,” adding, “This was very clearly an ambush deposition … designed to get Mr. Tapper to say something in a nice tight colloquy that they could play to a jury.” 

CNN has now moved to exclude mentions of Trump, Fox News, or the Dominion settlement at trial, arguing these subjects could inflame sensitivities among jurors in Florida’s deep-red Bay County.