Read the Hugely Embarrassing Secret CNN Messages Blasting Navy Veteran as Network’s Bank-Breaking Jake Tapper Defamation Case Drags On
Navy Veteran Zachary Young is suing CNN/
Jan. 12 2025, Published 12:45 p.m. ET
A senior CNN employee called a Navy veteran "a s---" in 2021 messages that have surfaced as part of an ongoing lawsuit against the news network.
RadarOnline.com can reveal Fuzz Hogan, the senior director of the network's standards and practices department, had made the remark about Zachary Young, who is now suing CNN in a $1 billion defamation suit after he claimed the network "destroyed his reputation".
The report first ran on Jake Tapper's 'The Lead with Jake Tapper' and insinuated Young was taking advantage of evacuees by charging 'exorbitant prices.'
The trial, which started this week, came about after the Navy vet appeared on Jake Tapper's show in November 2021.
Young claims CNN smeared him by implying that he was "illegally profiting" from helping people flee Afghanistan on the "black market" during the chaotic military withdrawal from the country in 2021.
His plaintiff's lawsuit claimed the broadcast singled out his work and branded him as someone who exploited "desperate Afghans" who were trying to flee their home country as the Taliban took over.
On the fourth day of the trial, his attorneys uncovered several internal messages between CNN employees, including Hogan's insults.
In a conversation with Hogan and Elizabeth Wolfe, a reporter at the network, Wolfe appeared to complain about Young's business pitch for helping possible Afghan evacuees with legal issues.
Wolfe wrote: "Wow, this dude is promising them legal status or refugee status."
Hogan replied: "Yeah, he's a s---."
In a magnified conversation between Hogan and Elizabeth Wolfe, Hogan appeared to call Young 'a s---'.
Hogan, who worked as a fact-checker at the time, was responsible for clearing the facts within the story.
Other messages uncovered between Hogan and Tom Lumley, an editor, showed how they discussed the digital version of the story to be written by Alex Marquardt.
Young said that Tapper using the word 'black market' to describe the work he does has had an 'immediate and devastating impact on my life'.
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Lumley seemed to struggle with the story's authenticity, writing: "That story is not poetry in any way. I just want to publish something to defuse the drama.
"I also think it's half a good story. We should have carried on and reported it out more."
In response, Hogan wrote: "Feels like a good character but he only got 3/4 of the way toward the larger. Every story can be longer."
After Hogan admitted to calling Young "a s---", he was then asked: "And then you went on to approve a 3/4 true story, didn't you?"
He agreed and went on to add that he wasn't concerned by the Tapper report.
According to the Los Angeles Times, there were also text messages included from the network's journalists who described Young as a "s--- bag" and "an a------" along with a text that said: "We gonna nail this Young mf-----."
