{"id":2387700,"date":"2025-01-08T07:41:01","date_gmt":"2025-01-08T12:41:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/jurors-riveted-by-evidence-cnn-defamed-navy-vet-reports\/"},"modified":"2025-01-08T07:43:58","modified_gmt":"2025-01-08T12:43:58","slug":"jurors-riveted-by-evidence-cnn-defamed-navy-vet-reports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/jurors-riveted-by-evidence-cnn-defamed-navy-vet-reports\/","title":{"rendered":"Jurors Riveted By Evidence CNN Defamed Navy Vet: Reports"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fjurors-riveted-by-evidence-cnn-defamed-navy-vet-reports%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2387700&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>A defamation\u2063 case against CNN is currently \u200bunderway, involving U.S. Navy veteran Zachary Young, who alleges \u2063that CNN falsely\u200d accused him of exploiting Afghans on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/living-through-a-socialist-collapse-an-insiders-account-of-venezuelas-demise\/\" title=\"Living Through A Socialist Collapse: An Insider\u2019s Account Of Venezuela\u2019s Demise\">black market<\/a> during the 2021 withdrawal from afghanistan. Young claims that a segment on &#8220;The Lead with Jake Tapper&#8221; harmed his reputation, making him \u2062&#8221;permanently unemployable,&#8221;\u200c and <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\">caused ample financial losses<\/a>.Evidence presented in court includes his contract\u2063 with DynCorp International, a defense contractor, which explicitly prohibits involvement in\u200b <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/southern-california-man-arrested-for-allegedly-stealing-4-million-worth-of-computers\/\" title=\"SoCal man arrested for stealing M worth of computers.\">black market activities<\/a>, further supporting Young&#8217;s argument. CNN&#8217;s attorney\u200d contends that the term &#8220;black market&#8221; was meant to describe covert \u2064operations \u2063rather than illegal \u200dactions. As the jury listens closely to the evidence,\u2062 Young seeks punitive damages for\u200c the alleged defamation.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Jurors were reportedly &ldquo;intently listening&rdquo; to the evidence presented on Tuesday in the defamation case against CNN that appeared to undermine CNN&rsquo;s argument. <\/p>\n<p>Fox News&rsquo; Brian Flood <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/briansflood\/status\/1876661316368368023\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reported<\/a> that &ldquo;the jury is locked in, listening intently&rdquo; while Media Research Center&rsquo;s Nicholas Fondacaro <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/NickFondacaro\/status\/1876656776726397356\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reported<\/a> from the Bay County courthouse that &ldquo;the jury is intently listening&rdquo; to evidence presented by attorneys for U.S. Navy veteran Zachary Young. <\/p>\n<p>Young sued CNN, alleging that a segment that aired on &ldquo;The Lead with Jake Tapper&rdquo; falsely accused him of exploiting Afghans by offering evacuations from Afghanistan on a &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/cnns-smear-tactics-could-cost-them-after-latest-court-ruling\/\" title=\"CNN&#039;s Smear Tactics Could Cost Them After Latest Court Ruling\">black market&#038;rdquo<\/a>; following the disastrous 2021 withdrawal. Young argued he used his skills and connections to help corporations and charities to evacuate people. Notably, a court agreed that Young did nothing illegal. Young is seeking punitive damages.<\/p>\n<h2>Evidence Shows Young Would Lose Contract If Engaged In &lsquo;Black Market&rsquo; Operations<\/h2>\n<p>Young&rsquo;s <a href=\"https:\/\/s3.documentcloud.org\/documents\/25247742\/young-complaint.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">alleges<\/a> that CNN&rsquo;s segment &ldquo;rendered Young permanently unemployable&rdquo; and caused &ldquo;Young to suffer millions of dollars in lost income&rdquo; because the segment &ldquo;associated&rdquo; Young with &ldquo;black markets&rdquo; via its chyron. Young&rsquo;s team argues the term &ldquo;black market&rdquo; implies nefarious or illegal conduct&ndash; which was expressly prohibited in his defense contracts. <\/p>\n<p>CNN&rsquo;s lawyer, David Axelrod, <a href=\"https:\/\/lawandcrime.com\/high-profile\/he-went-from-patriot-to-criminal-lawyer-for-navy-veteran-suing-cnn-says-theres-overwhelming-evidence-network-knew-hit-piece-was-theater\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">argued<\/a> in an opening statement Tuesday that the use of the &ldquo;black market&rdquo; chyron did not refer to illegal activity but rather &ldquo;covert&rdquo; operations to help evacuate Afghans. <\/p>\n<p>But such a term &mdash; &ldquo;black market&rdquo; &mdash; was expressly stated as being prohibited conduct in a contract between Young and DynCorp International, which is a U.S. defense contractor. The contract, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=v7HRweHnWDs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">presented to jurors<\/a> on Tuesday, showed Young would get fired and lose severance if he engaged in any &ldquo;dishonest, unethical, immoral or fraudulent conduct&rdquo; &mdash; including engagement with &ldquo;black market&rdquo; operations.<\/p>\n<p>One provision discussed ethical behavior, reputation, and following host-country law. The contract stipulated that Young would not be entitled to severance if he engaged &ldquo;in any dishonest, unethical, immoral or fraudulent conduct or any gross misconduct which discredits or causes harm to the [DynCorp International].&rdquo; Another provision stipulated Young must follow the laws of the &ldquo;host country&rdquo; &mdash; Saudi Arabia &mdash; regarding things like involvement with the &ldquo;black market.&rdquo; Young testified that &ldquo;black market&rdquo; operations &mdash; the same phrase CNN used in their chyron in their story on Young &mdash; are illegal in Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;This is a defense contractor that does a lot of sensitive work, so their reputations are very, very important for these big companies,&rdquo; Young testified. &ldquo;These companies have a reputation so they don&rsquo;t want anyone involved in any crimes, involved in any dishonest, unethical, fraud&hellip;&rdquo;<\/p>\n[[<strong>READ NEXT: <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/01\/06\/here-are-the-best-moments-from-the-jury-selection-for-cnns-defamation-trial\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Here Are The Best Moments From The Jury Selection For CNN&rsquo;s Defamation Trial<\/a>]<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>CNN &lsquo;Inadvertently&rsquo; Didn&rsquo;t Turn Over Evidence<\/h2>\n<p>CNN allegedly did not turn over evidence that was unknown to both CNN and Young&rsquo;s team until a Fox News Digital report <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/media\/cnn-heads-court-high-stakes-defamation-trial-about-afghanistan-segment\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">uncovered it<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>In a teaser that aired in 2021, Tapper tells viewers of a story surrounding &ldquo;desperate Afghans still trying to escape the country being preyed on by folks demanding that they pay up big time to get out,&rdquo; according to Fox News. Tapper later &ldquo;reminded viewers that the story on &lsquo;desperate Afghans&rsquo; being &lsquo;preyed upon&rsquo; was up next,&rdquo; according to Fox News. <\/p>\n<p>During Tuesday&rsquo;s lunch break, Young&rsquo;s team informed the presiding judge that CNN failed to turn over video footage of Tapper promoting the &ldquo;black market&rdquo; segment on air. <\/p>\n<p>Young&rsquo;s attorneys sparred in the courtroom over the evidence, with CNN&rsquo;s lawyer telling Young&rsquo;s defense:  &ldquo;If you knew what you were looking for you could have found it.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Young&rsquo;s lawyer shot back: &ldquo;CNN didn&rsquo;t know about it&rsquo;s own videos, it&rsquo;s news to CNN that they created these videos. <em>We<\/em> are at fault for not realizing that they failed to comply with the basic discovery obligations? We shouldn&rsquo;t have to audit CNN&rsquo;s website or transcripts to make sure they&rsquo;re complying with discovery process.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>CNN&rsquo;s attorneys defended themselves, arguing: &ldquo;It was inadvertent that we didn&rsquo;t produce it,&rdquo; and that they &ldquo;just didn&rsquo;t know about it.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The judge ruled the teaser could be presented to the jury but that cross-examination on the video would not be permitted.<\/p>\n<h2>Jurors Reportedly &lsquo;Receptive&rsquo; To Young Telling CNN Source To &lsquo;F*ck Off&rsquo;<\/h2>\n<p>Toward the end of Tuesday&rsquo;s hearing, jurors were shown a series of text messages between Young and Jill Kornetsky, a CNN source. <\/p>\n<p>The messages show Young telling Kornetsky to contact him if she knows people in Afghanistan in need of evacuation. <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not free though we don&rsquo;t have a &lsquo;non-profit&rsquo; standing behind us fleecing [donors],&rdquo; Young said in a message to Kornetsky. (Young had previously testified about the costs of evacuations). <\/p>\n<p>Kornetsky appeared to call Young a mercenary and accused him of making a profit. Young told the court he took offense to the term &ldquo;mercenaries.&rdquo; Kornetsky also accused Young of taking a &ldquo;cut&rdquo; before saying Young&rsquo;s evacuation costs sound &ldquo;more like a retirement plan than a mission of mercy.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Evidence shows Young explaining the cost breakdown before eventually telling Kornetsky to &ldquo;f*ck off.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Fondacaro <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/NickFondacaro\/status\/1876764836337418465\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reported<\/a> the &ldquo;jury seems receptive to Young&rsquo;s message of &lsquo;f*ck off&rsquo; to Kornetsky&hellip;&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Young also said he doesn&rsquo;t have to defend his evacuation costs to a &ldquo;spiteful b*tch on LinkedIn.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Young told the jurors he &ldquo;shouldn&rsquo;t have&rdquo; said what he said. <\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist. Brianna graduated from Fordham University with a degree in International Political Economy. Her work has been featured on Newsmax, Fox News, Fox Business and RealClearPolitics. Follow Brianna on X: @briannalyman2<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jurors were reportedly &#8220;focused&#8221; on evidence in CNN&#8217;s defamation case<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":2387701,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-2025-01-07-at-6.09.38-PM-e1736291467797-1024x577.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[9373,9142,4913,15211,48110],"class_list":["post-2387700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cnn","tag-defamation","tag-evidence","tag-jurors","tag-navy-veteran"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-2025-01-07-at-6.09.38-PM-e1736291467797-1024x577.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2387700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2387700"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2387700\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2387704,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2387700\/revisions\/2387704"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2387701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2387700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2387700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2387700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}