EXCLUSIVE: First Glimpse of Military Vet 'Hellbent on Taking Down CNN' — Radar Reveals the Never-Before-Seen Photo of Zachary Young … the Man at the Center of Network’s $1Billion Defamation Trial
The judge ruled Young 'proceed with his claim for punitive damages'.
Nov. 25 2024, Published 5:30 p.m. ET
CNN will soon have to battle U.S. Navy veteran Zachary Young in court after the network made shocking claims against the soldier.
RadarOnline.com can reveal Young is doing all he can to take down CNN after he claimed they "destroyed his reputation" during a 2021 segment on The Lead with Jake Tapper.
The court also found Young 'did not take money from Afghans'.
A source told RadarOnline.com: “Zachary’s lawyers deposed CNN’s corporate representative on punitive damages on Friday. Then there is a pre trial conference Monday (November 25). That is the last hearing before the trial. It is the end of the road after three years of litigation. Now it all comes down to the trial.”
Another insider shared: "Zachary Young and his pitbull lawyers have staved off every challenge. They are hellbent on taking down CNN.”
During the CNN segment Tapper informed viewers that commenter Alex Marquardt found "Afghans trying to get out of the country face a black market full of promises, demands of exorbitant fees, and no guarantee of safety or success."
Young was then accused of being a “human trafficker” and a “war profiteer".
CNN accused Young of being a 'human trafficker' and a 'war profiteer'.
Then, in August 2024, CNN reportedly took to citing Taliban Sharia law to defend their remarks made in the episode, and claimed Young "was engaged in criminal activity when he was working to help rescue women and children from Afghanistan following U.S. withdrawal and the Taliban sweeping back into power."
Deana Shullman, a lawyer for CNN, wrote at the time: “Discovery has indicated that those activities he orchestrated and funded, which involved moving women out of Afghanistan, almost certainly were illegal under Taliban rule."
Following the allegations Young filed a lawsuit and argued the episode wrongly portrayed him as a profiteer of war crimes by suggesting he charged "exorbitant fees" on the "black market" when he worked to help desperate Afghans flee the country.
Young saved at least 20 women’s lives and charged $14,500 a piece for their evacuation for his clients which were exclusively corporations, previous court filings revealed.
However, CNN said its report about Young was not defamatory because it was about profiteers taking advantage of the chaos in Afghanistan to charge prices that Afghans could not afford.
Amid the back and forth, Young's legal team also accused the network of also withholding key financial documents in accordance with net worth discovery.
Young claimed the network 'destroyed his reputation and business'.
Young's lead counsel Vel Freedman argued that while CNN had handed over thousands of pages of documents, they failed to turn over cash flow records.
A judge in Delaware eventually ruled CNN‘s parent company Warner Bros. Discovery must conduct a financial deep dive and then hand relevant information over to Young and his team.
The allegations occurred during Tapper's CNN show in 2021.
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Meanwhile, according to a court filing, Tapper refused to answer questions about his show’s finances, including his salary, during a sworn deposition. Young's team requested Florida’s 14 Circuit Court to step in and force him to answer the questions.
The defamation trial case between Young and CNN is scheduled for January 6, 2025.
The lawsuit can possibly cost the longtime network $1billion.
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