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AP Hit With Lawsuit by U.S. Navy Veteran Who Won $5 Million in CNN Defamation Case
Zachary Young, the U.S. Navy veteran who was awarded $5 million after a jury found that CNN had defamed him, is suing the Associated Press.
The article, written by AP reporter David Bauder, “went even further than CNN’s falsehoods [and] blatantly accused Mr. Young of engaging in criminal human smuggling,” according to the lawsuit, filed by the West Palm Beach law firm Pike & Lustig. Young’s lawyers are fighting back at the continued mischaracterization of their client, who they say undertook dangerous efforts to evacuate Afghan allies and civilians after Kabul fell to the Taliban in August 2021. Reporter Alex Marquardt had expressed his intention to “nail this Zach Young mfucker,” while colleague Katie Bo Lillis dubbed him a “shitbag.” Producer Michael Conte wrote that he had a “punchable face.” At the time, there was some internal pushback over Marquardt’s piece, with national security reporter Nicole Gaouette writing that it was likely “seriously expensive” to get out of Afghanistan” and “the inference running through Alex’s story that these people are just bilking desperate Afghans for their money might not be fair at all.”
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