Military vet tells Megyn Kelly CNN ‘doubled down’ on slander ‘till the very end,’ retracted apology during deposition

Navy veteran Zachary Young, who won his lawsuit against CNN, told SiriusXM’s Megyn Kelly on Friday that the network had “doubled down” on their slander “until the very end,” describing how witnesses retracted their apologies during the deposition.

A six-person jury in Florida found CNN liable for defamation on Jan. 17, after the network portrayed Young’s evacuation efforts to help those escaping Afghanistan during the Biden-Harris administration’s botched withdrawal as exploiting Afghans. On “The Megyn Kelly Show,” Kelly asked Young about the apology he received following his court victory, adding it appeared to be a “generic” correction and apology.

“It is and you know now that I understand more about the legalities. I understand why they did it. It wasn’t a sincere correction or apology and in fact when we deposed all of CNN’s witnesses more than a dozen, including their corporate rep — they all retracted their apology,” Young said.

“They said that they disagreed with it, [and] they were never consulted about it. The reporters, the editors, the CNN corporate rep [said] that it was made for legal reasons by lawyers, so that was pretty disturbing to hear,” Young added. “It’s a position that they maintained all the way up through trial.”

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On June 12, Young filed a $1 billion lawsuit against CNN over their November 2021 segment on him with reporter Alex Marquardt, which aired on “The Lead with Jake Tapper.” In its decision, the Florida jury awarded the Navy veteran $4 million in damages, along with $1 million for emotional distress.

During the trial, Young told the court that CNN failed to “confirm any of the facts” they claimed on air and described how CNN employees used disparaging terms toward him. According to court documents, Marquardt emailed, “We gonna nail this Zachary Young mfucker,” to which another employee responded, “gonna hold you to that, cowboy.”

“We gave them opportunities to say something like, ‘We made some mistakes. We could have done better. We could have done more journalism. We could have used different words.’ But they didn’t. They doubled down all the way up until the very end,” Young said. “For me, I think that was the most disturbing part, was that even faced with this lawsuit and the overwhelming evidence that we had in discovery they still couldn’t say that they made a mistake.”

By March 2022, CNN’s Pamela Brown told viewers on “The Lead with Jake Tapper” that during a segment on Young, the “lead-in and banner” referenced a “black market,” adding that the network “did not intend” to suggest Young was involved in illegal trafficking. Brown also noted they “regret the error” and apologized.

Following the decision, CNN told the Daily Caller News Foundation, “We remain proud of our journalists and are 100% committed to strong, fearless, and fair-minded reporting at CNN, though we will of course take what useful lessons we can from this case.”

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