PANAMA CITY — Attorneys reached a settlement agreement on Friday in the defamation case between CNN and U.S. Navy veteran Zachary Young.
Late Friday morning, jurors returned a verdict finding that CNN defamed Young, a former U.S government operative who helped extract people from Afghanistan after the U.S. withdrawal in 2021.
Later in the day, the parties reached a settlement, the terms of which are confidential.
Attorneys for CNN and Zachary Young reached a settlement agreement on Friday in the defamation case that Young filed against the news organization. This photo was taken Jan. 6 during jury selection at the Bay County Courthouse.
The jury had ruled that CNN must pay Young $4 million for lost earnings and $1 million for personal damages. The panel was set to hear additional witnesses and eventually determine how much in punitive damages to award Young.
However, the parties settled before jurors reached that point. The terms of the settlement cover the entire case, so the jury’s combined $5 million award is no longer a factor.
“This had a good ending for me,” Young said in an interview after court on Friday afternoon. “The outcome that I wanted was achieved thanks to my brilliant lawyers. I wanted vindication. I wanted my name cleared. I wanted my reputation cleared. I feel like (the trial) has had that effect.
“Beyond that, I don’t know what tomorrow looks like. I had planned to take this to the very end. If it (took) two more years of appeals, I was prepared to do it.”
A CNN spokesperson said: “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.”
Past reports note CNN published a story in 2021 that alleged Young was exploiting desperate Afghans and offering evacuations on a “black market.” This sparked Young’s defamation lawsuit, which he filed in 2022.
The trial spanned Jan. 6-17. Circuit Judge William Henry of the 14th Judicial Circuit presided.
According to Devin Freedman, lead attorney for Young, it was a strategic decision by his law firm, Freedman Normand Friedland, to hold the trial in Bay County. The firm has locations in New York, Boston and Miami.
“We thought that Bay County was favorable … from the law that was present here, the courts that were present here, the quality of the courts that were present here (and) the jury pool being, just quite frankly, more willing to hold CNN to account than another area,” Freedman said during an interview after court. “We have found in our research that Republicans were more willing to hold the media to account than the Democrats that we had in our studies.”
According to the Bay County Supervisor of Elections Office, 75,539 of Bay County’s 134,412 registered voters are registered Republicans. Donald Trump got 72.84% of the Bay vote in November.
Freedman also said the results of the defamation case “are the sort of things trial lawyers dream of.”
“You get to take a case to verdict,” Freedman said. “You get punitive damages against a media defendant, (as well as) clear your client’s name, and then settle the case so that he can move on and not have to beat CNN in 10 appeals that will take five years.
“It’s a great day.”
This article originally appeared on The News Herald: Attorneys reach settlement in CNN defamation case in Bay County