Jury Trial Scheduled in CNN Defamation Case

A jury trial has been scheduled in a defamation court case involving CNN.

U.S. Navy veteran Zachary Young has accused CNN of smearing him and his Florida-based security consulting company, Nemex Enterprises Inc., by implying they illegally profited when helping people flee Afghanistan during the Biden administration's disastrous 2021 military withdrawal.

The term "black market" was used in an onscreen graphic and in a spoken introduction of the segment that aired on "The Lead with Jake Tapper." Young says CNN falsely portrayed his activities as illegal, The Los Angeles Times reported.

Although the "black market" term was removed from the web version of the story and CNN issued an on-air apology, Young asserts that the story’s global exposure via the network damaged his and his company’s reputation.

Judge William Henry Scott, in Florida's 14th Judicial Circuit, earlier this week ruled that Young did not act illegally, but held off on deciding whether the term "black market" implied criminality, the Times said.

A two-week jury trial was scheduled for Jan. 6, assuming no settlement is agreed upon before then.

Henry ruled that CNN must present financial data dating back to 2021.

The Times reported evidence in the case includes text messages from CNN journalists describing Young as a "[expletive] bag." There was also a text that said "we gonna nail this Young [expletive]."

Young first filed suit in June 2022 and then brought an amended complaint in Bay County, Florida, in August 2023. The second complaint sought punitive damages, potentially making for an extremely expensive case for the network, Law & Crime reported.

"The fact is that in late 2021, Afghanistan fell to the Taliban. During that turmoil, Young began leveraging his unique skillset and relationships to assist U.S. corporations and charities that wanted to safely and swiftly extract certain person from Afghanistan," the complaint said. "Young was successful, saving dozens of lives for various corporate sponsors, and building a track record that led to more engagements with established corporations and NGOs," such as Audible, Bloomberg, CivilFleet, and H.E.R.O., Inc., Law & Crime reported.

The plaintiff said he "never advertised to, or took a single penny from, any Afghan, much less 'exploited' 'desperate Afghans,'" that he "certainly never sold any services on a 'black market,'" and that "[e]verything he did was legal" — yet, the CNN report "rendered" him "permanently unemployable in the career he has trained his whole life for" and cost him millions in income.

CNN lost an appeal in June, when the First District Court of Appeal ruled Young was allowed leave to amend his pursuit of punitive damages.

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