CNN defamation trial: Editor who said story ‘full of holes like Swiss cheese’ grilled on the witness stand
PANAMA CITY, FLORIDA — CNN’s senior national security editor Thomas Lumley was charged in court Tuesday after internal messages showed he was highly skeptical of the “fairly flawed” reporting at the center a high-profile libel trial.
Zachary Young, a U.S. Navy veteran, claims CNN defamed him in a November 2021 report that first aired on “The Lead with Jake Tapper,” suggesting he illegally profited from desperate people trying to flee Afghanistan after Biden administration military retirement, implying that he was involved in “black market” dealings and as a result destroying his professional reputation. The report was first shown on television and then turned into a print article for CNN’s website.
Lumley, who has worked for CNN for more than six years, was called as a witness after internal messages showed he thought the report was “full of holes like Swiss cheese”.
Thomas Lumley, CNN’s senior national security editor, appeared in court on Tuesday after internal messages showed he was highly skeptical of a “fairly flawed” report at the center of a high-profile libel trial. (Fox News Digital)
Jurors were shown various emails and messages during Lumley’s testimony, including a message in which he suggested that reporter Alex Marquardt should add information about whether people paying large sums of money to evacuate would ever make it out of Afghanistan.
Lumley received a draft of the printed article written by Marquardt and replied, “One main thing is unclear to me. Are any of the people who pay these guys actually going to leave the country? I think we need a graph [paragraph] explain. Is it completely hopeless?”
A minute later, Lumley texted a fellow CNN editor saying he didn’t “understand” the underlying issue about the story, and was surprised that the “triad” of CNN’s fact-checking apparatus had approved Marquardt’s report.
Young previously testified that he helped rescue at least 22 women from Afghanistan, but that information was never released by CNN, indicating that the network did not heed Lumley’s advice.
“I had a question I wanted to address,” Lumley said when Young’s general counsel Vel Freedman asked him if he had any questions about the report.
Thomas Lumley received a draft of the printed article written by Marquardt and replied: “One important thing is not clear to me. Are any of the people who pay these guys really going to leave the country? I think we need a graphologist to explain. Is it completely hopeless?”
CNN Senior National Security Editor Thomas Lumley was surprised that CNN’s fact-checkers approved the story, according to messages he sent to colleagues.
The CNN editor then tried to retract comments he had previously made to colleagues.
“Those are my words on the page, but really I think my question about the story was what I’ll call a storytelling question. It wasn’t a question about the accuracy and fairness of this story, which is what the ‘triad’ really cares about,” Lumley said.
“I said, ‘I’m kind of surprised,’ but on second thought,” he continued. “That was a bit of an imprecise thought.”
Freedman then asked Lumley if he had met with CNN’s lawyers to prepare for his testimony.
“I had a pretty short meeting last night, maybe 45 minutes, and we had a couple of meetings in Washington before the holidays … about four hours maybe,” Lumley said.
Freedman then showed the jury another internal message when Lumley wrote: “It’s actually a good story (no digital record or TV script that answers the underlying question).”
Freedman then showed the jury Lumley’s messages, which read: “It’s not clear to me if they were all stolen” by Young, adding “That’s pretty crucial!”
In another message, Lumley suggested a “pause” in the report if Marquardt did not have answers to a key question.
“If he doesn’t know the answer to that fundamental question, I’d say we really need to hold off until we find out…I hope Alex does, but I just forgot to mention,” Lumley wrote to a CNN colleague, who responded, “Ouch. ”
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Thomas Lumley wrote: “It would actually be a good story (without a digital record or TV script answering the underlying question).”
CNN’s senior national security editor Thomas Lumley suggested putting the digital report on “pause” until the underlying question is answered.
Lumley confirmed under oath that he sent the messages and that the report was aired on “The Lead with Jake Tapper” shortly thereafter. Lumley then stopped the printed part.
“We are pausing it for digital [CNN’s website]. My basic question is now answered, but on TV it’s less of an issue. Interviews with dramatic silhouettes are less conspicuous anyway. As a text, I think it works less,” Lumley wrote to a colleague.
Freedman then showed the jury other emails in which Lumley criticized his network’s reporting. Lumley called it “grossly unprepared for prime time,” reiterated that “it’s not clear from the story whether anyone paying these people is ever going to come out” and called the entire report “quite flawed.”
Freedman noted that the report had already aired on CNN when Lumley said he was “not ready for prime time.” When pressed on the witness stand, Lumley insisted he was criticizing the print article because of the digital, not the TV report.
“I wasn’t responsible for the TV piece so I can have an opinion, but if I had read the TV piece and thought there was some big problem with it, I would have said something,” Lumley testified.
Freedman shot back, “I think you said something.”
U.S. Navy veteran Zachary Young testified Thursday that he successfully helped at least 22 women escape Afghanistan. (Jessica Costescu)
“The story is full of holes like swiss cheese,” Thomas Lumley wrote to CNN’s Megan Trimble who replied, “I agree – the story is 80% emotion, 20% blacked out facts lol.”
Jurors were then shown multiple internal CNN messages, including Lumley calling the report “”s—y urgently off TV package” and that Marquardt was “pissed off” by the criticism. In another message, he wrote, “I mean the story about Alex is chaos” and said it might not be “easily saved”.
Lumley testified that the message showed he was “clearly frustrated” and did not feel the version that aired on CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper” should be posted online.
“The story is full of holes like swiss cheese,” Lumley wrote to CNN’s Megan Trimble who replied, “I agree – the story is 80% emotion, 20% blacked out facts lol.”
CNN senior national security editor Thomas Lumley said in an internal memo to colleagues that Alex Marquardt’s report was “no poetry” and “a half-assed story.”
CNN Senior National Security Editor Thomas Lumley called the story at the center of the high-stakes libel trial “pretty flawed.”
Freedman asked Lumley if the “obscured fact” was a “lie,” but the CNN editor did not respond.
“Honestly, I can’t speak for Ms. Trimble,” he testified.
Freedman then noted that the report was featured on several other CNN shows after its initial airing on “The Main With Jake Tapper.”
Lumley also admitted that the “fundamental question” he wanted to answer could not be found in time for the digital report. Despite all the criticism Lumley made in the internal messages he showed jurors, he stood by his story when asked about it on the witness stand.
“From a storytelling perspective, it’s not my favorite. But it’s still a fair and accurate story,” Lumley testified.
Later, CNN attorney David Axelrod, not to be confused with CNN’s political commentator, questioned Lumley during cross-examination. When asked about the “full of holes as Swiss cheese” comment, Lumley called it “imprecise language” and said the only “hole” he was primarily interested in was what happened to the Afghans next.
“I would never publish a story that I think is inaccurate or dishonest,” he said.
The trial continues on Wednesday and will be broadcast live Fox News Digital.
Nikolas Lanum of Fox News Digital contributed to this report.
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