CNN defamation trial: Jury remains deadlocked as deliberations enter second day

PANAMA CITY, FLORIDA – Jurors remain undecided in high-stakes defamation lawsuit against CNN as the debate will continue on Friday morning.

The plaintiff, U.S. Navy veteran Zachary Young, claimed that CNN defamed him by suggesting that he made illegal money helping people flee Afghanistan on the “black market” during Biden administration military withdrawal from the country in 2021 Young believes CNN “destroyed his reputation and business” by labeling him an illegal profiteer” who exploited “desperate Afghans” during a Nov. 11, 2021, segment that first aired on CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper.”

The jurors deliberated for almost six hours. 14th Circuit Judge William S. Henry, who presided over the trial in Bay County, Florida, had previously negotiated twice with the jury to continue working longer Thursday night after the jury asked to return Friday morning. Jurors were given pizza after one of them said they were getting “hungry and tired”. They were released at 9:18 pm CT.

The trial will resume Friday at 8:15 a.m. CT.

The trial comes after more than three years of litigation and a wild, sometimes chaotic, eight-day trial. The court previously ruled that Young “did not act illegally or criminally” despite what the network reported on air.

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Tapper first teased the 2021 segment at the center of the lawsuit, telling CNN viewers about “desperate Afghans still trying to escape a country being pillaged by people who demand they pay large amounts of time to get out.”

Later in the show, Tapper reminded viewers that the next story is about “desperate Afghans” who are “prey.”

After the much-hyped segment began, Tapper said Marquardt revealed that “Afghans trying to get out of the country face a black market full of promises, demands for exorbitant fees and no guarantee of safety or success.”

Tapper pitched to Marquardt, who said “desperate Afghans are exploited” and have to pay “exorbitant, often impossible amounts” to escape the country.

Marquardt then singled Young out, putting a picture of his face on the screen and saying his company was asking $75,000 to transport a vehicle with passengers to Pakistan or $14,500 per person to end up in the United Arab Emirates.

“Prices are way beyond the reach of most Afghans,” Marquardt told viewers.

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CNN then broadcast Marquardt allegedly trying to call Young, who did not answer the phone.

“He told CNN in a text message that Afghans trying to leave are expected to have sponsors pay for them,” Marquardt said, adding that Young said the cost of evacuating the network was “very variable and based on the realities of the environment.”

Marquardt then said Young “repeatedly refused to describe the costs or say if he was making money,” before playing a clip of an anonymous sympathetic man who couldn’t afford to evacuate his family from Afghanistan.

Marquardt got back to Young, saying he had received another text message.

“In another message, this person who was offering these evacuations, Zachary Young, wrote, ‘Availability is extremely limited and demand is high’ … he goes on to say, ‘That’s how the economy works, unfortunately,'” Marquardt told viewers.

Tapper replied, “Unfortunately, hmm,” before thanking Marquardt for the report.

No other person or company was named besides Young.

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The segment was shared on social media and also repackaged for CNN’s website. Marquardt’s report was rebroadcast November 13 on Jim Acosta’s CNN show and multiple times on CNN International.

Every second of the segment was picked up during the trial, with CNN’s legal team insisting that Young was not a central element of the story and the prosecution team suggesting that the “black market” implication essentially destroyed Young’s career as a defense contractor, where he language was specifically stated as grounds for termination in the contract he signed.

Young’s legal team obtained CNN’s damning internal memos through disclosures that repeatedly show staff expressing open hostility toward the Navy veteran. Among those presented to the jury was one who called him a “bag of shit” and an “a-hole” and said he had a “punchable face.”

Marquardt’s own message telling a colleague “we’re going to catch this Zachary Young mf—er” was quoted frequently throughout the trial.

Young also testified that he rescued at least 22 women from Afghanistan, but that information was never published by CNN.

At one point, CNN’s senior national security editor Thomas Lumley was convicted in court after internal messages showed he was highly skeptical of the “rather flawed” report. Lumley was called as a witness after internal messages showed he thought the report was “as full of holes as Swiss cheese”.

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CNN issued an on-air apology on March 25, 2022, when replacement anchor Pamela Brown sat in Tapper’s chair. However, several CNN employees who testified said they did not think an apology was necessary, and CNN Vice President Adam Levine testified that the apology was issued for legal purposes only.

The trial included Judge Henry several times berating CNNN’s lead attorney, David Axelrod, who is not the eponymous on-air expert. forcing him to apologize Young on the spot for calling him a “liar” when evidence proved he wasn’t lying about not being able to land a job in his field after the CNN segment aired.

Axelrod insisted that the document showing Young still had a security clearance was proof that he was able to find work after the segment aired on CNN, but it was ultimately revealed that the security clearance was dropped in 2022.

The trial continues on Friday and will be broadcast live Fox News Digital.

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