A Navy veteran filed a defamation suit against CNN after the network allegedly suggested he participated in a scam that took advantage of Afghans who were desperate to flee the country.
Zachary Young filed a $1 billion suit against the network on June 12. The suit concerned a November 2021 segment by reporter Alex Marquardt that aired on “The Lead with Jake Tapper.” That story portrayed Young’s evacuation efforts as exploiting Afghans by charging exorbitant rates for extracting them from Afghanistan following the Taliban takeover. During testimony Tuesday, CNN National Security Editor Thomas Lumley was asked how he characterized the story. (RELATED: ‘Can I Ask You A Question?’: 5 Scott Jennings Jabs That Left CNN Panelists Sputtering)
“The story is full of holes like Swiss cheese,” Lumley said in emails presented in court, according to Fox News reporter Joseph A. Wulfsohn, with a colleague describing the story as “80% emotion.” While on the witness stand, when confronted with emails where he expressed doubts, Lumley said the story was accurate and that he stood by it, Wulfsohn reported.
The trial started Jan. 6, with attorneys for Young telling a jury in Bay County, Fla., that the network failed to “confirm any of the facts” before airing the November 2021 report, while also describing the disparaging terms used by CNN employees towards Young, according to Fox News. Judge William A. Henry ruled in October that Young “did not act illegally or criminally” during his efforts to evacuate people from Afghanistan, Fox News reported.
Freedman later pulls messages from Lumley calling Marquardt’s report “a mess” and that he wanted it to “live as a TV piece,” adding he’s “not even sure it’s easily salvageable.”
Story is “full of holes like Swiss cheese,” his colleague replies its “80% emotion 20% obscure fact” pic.twitter.com/NZ1EUMfnbX
— Joseph A. Wulfsohn (@JosephWulfsohn) January 14, 2025
“We gonna nail this Zachary Young mfucker,” Marquart said in an email, according to court documents, with another CNN employee responding “gonna hold you to that, cowboy.”
Marquardt testified Monday that he found no evidence that Young committed any crimes and later said Young was “a small part of the story,” Fox News reported. Marquardt, at the time CNN’s senior national security correspondent, denied he was “looking to take anyone down.”
An Army major general testified earlier in the proceedings that after CNN’s segment, he would not be willing to hire Young, saying it would be “way too risky” to hire the Navy veteran, according to Fox News.
CNN sought to keep the jury from learning about a subsequent raise and promotion to chief national security correspondent that Marquardt received from the network, according to Fox News.
Multiple CNN employees testified in court they opposed the network’s decision to issue an apology for the story, with Fuzz Hogan, a senior editor at CNN at the time the segment aired, saying he stood by the story, Fox News reported. (RELATED: ‘Are You Saying I’m Not A Christian?’: Scott Jennings Erupts When CNN Host Uses Religion To Call Jordan Neely ‘Victim’)
“In November, we ran a story about Afghans desperate to flee the country who faced paying high sums beyond the reach of average Afghans,” CNN host Pamela Brown told viewers in March 2022 while filling in for Tapper on “The Lead.”
“The story included a lead-in and banner throughout the story that referenced a ‘black market.’ The use of the term ‘black market’ in the story was an error. The story included reporting on Zachary Young. We did not intend to suggest that Mr. Young participated in the black market,” Brown said. “We regret the error, and to Mr. Young we apologize.”
CNN did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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