CNN Lawsuit: Zachary Young Defamation Verdict and Settlement

In January 2025, a Florida jury found CNN liable for defaming Zachary Young, awarding the Navy veteran and private security contractor $5 million after concluding the network falsely portrayed his Afghanistan evacuation work as part of a “black market.” The Zachary Young CNN defamation lawsuit ended when CNN settled for an undisclosed additional sum mid-trial, cutting off a punitive damages phase in which the jury foreperson later said she would have awarded up to $100 million.¹²

The Report That Triggered the Lawsuit

On November 11, 2021, CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper” aired a segment by chief national security correspondent Alex Marquardt about private contractors charging fees to help Afghans flee after the U.S. military withdrawal. The report cited figures such as $75,000 for a car trip from Kabul to Pakistan and $14,500 per person for a flight to the United Arab Emirates.³

Young was the only private operator named. CNN showed his photograph and a LinkedIn post of his beneath a chyron reading: “CNN Investigation: Afghans trying to flee Taliban face black markets, exorbitant fees, no guarantee of safety or success.”⁴ A follow-up article on CNN’s website questioned whether operators like Young had actually evacuated anyone.³

Who Zachary Young Is and What His Firm Did

Young is a Navy veteran, former U.S. government operative, and founder of Nemex Enterprises, a private security and logistics firm.⁴⁵⁶

The LinkedIn post CNN featured, Young said, was aimed at corporate sponsors, not individuals, and he actively discouraged individual Afghans from contacting him. He argued the segment destroyed his consulting business, cutting his annual income from roughly $350,000 to zero.⁵

How the Case Reached Trial

Young and Nemex Enterprises sued CNN on June 15, 2022, in the Circuit Court of the Fourteenth Judicial Circuit in Bay County, Florida. The complaint alleged CNN “recklessly and maliciously” ruined Young’s career by branding him an illegal profiteer preying on desperate Afghans.³⁷

The most important pre-trial fight was over punitive damages. Under Florida law, a plaintiff must clear an evidentiary threshold before pleading entitlement to them. Judge William Henry found Young’s evidence of actual malice sufficient and allowed him to amend his complaint. CNN appealed. On June 12, 2024, Florida’s First District Court of Appeal affirmed, holding that internal CNN communications and the way Young was singled out gave a jury reasonable grounds to find intentional misconduct or gross negligence.⁴

The Internal Messages That Turned the Trial

The two-week trial in January 2025 turned on internal CNN messages and emails. Roughly a week before the segment aired, Marquardt wrote to an editor: “We gonna nail this Zachary Young mf-er.” In another exchange with Young himself, he wrote, “It’s your funeral, bucko.” Other CNN employees called Young a “shitbag” and an “a-hole.”⁴⁸

Editorial exchanges about the reporting itself were equally damaging. Internal messages described the story as “a mess,” “incomplete,” “full of holes like Swiss cheese,” and “80% emotion, 20% obscured fact.”⁴ Even so, CNN’s pre-publication review, an internal process called “the Triad” involving the network’s legal, standards and practices, and editorial departments, cleared the segment.⁹

CNN’s defense attorney argued the heated language reflected a rigorous journalistic process among experienced reporters, not editorial failure.¹⁰ Marquardt testified from the witness stand that his reporting was “factual, accurate, and fair” and denied it was a hit piece.⁸ Young’s attorneys used the messages to argue CNN acted with actual malice, publishing a story its own staff recognized as flawed.

The Verdict and Mid-Trial Settlement

On January 17, 2025, after 18 hours of deliberation, a six-person jury found CNN liable for defamation. It awarded Young $4 million for lost business and $1 million in personal damages.¹¹ Judge Henry had already ruled there was no evidence Young committed any illegal acts, cutting the ground from under CNN’s “black market” framing.¹²

Hours later, with the punitive damages phase already underway, CNN and Young reached a confidential settlement on undisclosed terms.¹ Jury foreperson Katy Svitenko later told Variety she personally would have awarded up to $100 million in punitive damages to “send a message.”¹³

About five months after the original broadcast, CNN had issued an on-air apology acknowledging that its use of the term “black market” was inappropriate, while maintaining the accuracy of other parts of the report.¹¹

Young’s Follow-On Lawsuit Against the Associated Press

On April 11, 2025, Young filed a separate defamation lawsuit against the Associated Press in the same Bay County court. It targets an AP article published on the day of the CNN verdict, January 17, 2025, which stated that “Young’s business helped smuggle people out of Afghanistan.” Young alleges the word “smuggle” falsely accused him of felony human smuggling and that the AP published the claim without seeking comment from him.¹⁴

A supplemental filing in April 2025 indicated Young’s attorneys are seeking up to $453 million in damages and have moved to amend the complaint to add punitive damages. U.S. News and World Report, which had syndicated the AP article, retracted it two days after the suit was filed. The AP called the suit “frivolous” and said it will vigorously defend its reporting. As of mid-2025, the case remained pending before Judge Henry, with rulings expected on the AP’s motion to dismiss.¹⁵

1
CNN. CNN Defamation Trial Verdict
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Variety. CNN Defamation Trial Juror Says She Would Have Awarded Up to $100 Million in Punitive Damages
3
Georgetown University Free Speech Project. CNN Settles With Navy Veteran After Defamation Verdict in Black Market Afghanistan Rescue Case
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Florida First District Court of Appeal. Cable News Network Inc. v. Young, No. 1D2023-2237
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Los Angeles Times. CNN Correspondent Alex Marquardt Takes Witness Stand in Defamation Case
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ForensisGroup. News Network Sued for $750M
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Trellis Law. Defendant Cable News Network Inc.’s Motion to Dismiss
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Washington Post. CNN Defamation Trial: Alex Marquardt
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FindLaw. Cable News Network Inc. v. Young
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MTSU First Amendment Encyclopedia. CNN Defamation Trial Comes at a Rough Time for Legacy Media
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The Guardian. CNN Defamation Trial
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Courthouse News Service. CNN Loses in Florida Defamation Case
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Variety. CNN Defamation Trial Juror Says She Would Have Awarded Up to $100 Million
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Variety. Associated Press Lawsuit by Navy Veteran in CNN Defamation Case
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New York Post. Navy Veteran’s $500M Defamation Lawsuit Against Associated Press Advances