A Florida jury found that CNN defamed Navy veteran Zachary Young with an on-air report featuring his business.
Young sued the network in 2021 after it ran a segment on contractors profiting off refugees trying to flee Afghanistan in the United States’s 2021 withdrawal, which included his business. He argued that CNN harmed his business by including him in the segment.
On Friday, the jury, after eight hours of deliberation, awarded Young $4 million in lost business damages and $1 million in personal damages.
The jury is additionally set to decide Friday on any putative damages CNN must pay. The news outlet did not issue a statement on the matter, saying it would wait until the damages phase of the trial was complete before commenting on the result.
The segment in question highlights a California-based Afghan American man who found people on Facebook offering to shepherd…
