Alert – Embarrassing internal CNN messages are revealed in court over Navy veteran’s defamation case

A senior CNN employee referred to a Navy veteran as being ‘a s***’ in messages uncovered in an ongoing lawsuit.

Fuzz Hogan, the senior director of the network’s standards and practices department, had made the remark about Zachary Young, who is now suing them for defamation. 

The trial, which started this week, came about after Young appeared in a Jake Tapper segment in November 2021, that he says ‘destroyed his reputation’.

Young claims CNN smeared him by implying that he was illegally profiting from helping people flee Afghanistan on the ‘black market’ during the 2021 military withdrawal from the country.

His lawsuit alleged that the broadcast singled out his work and instead branded him as someone who exploited ‘desperate Afghans’ with ‘exorbitant’ fees who were trying to flee their home country as the Taliban took over.

On the fourth day of the trial, his attorneys uncovered internal messages between CNN employees, including Hogan. 

In a conversation with Hogan and Elizabeth Wolfe, a reporter at the network, the two criticized the veteran. 

Wolfe appeared to complain about Young’s business pitch for helping possible Afghan evacuees with legal issues – leading Hogan to join in on the criticism. 

Wolfe wrote: ‘Wow this dude is promising them legal status or refugee status’, to which he replied: ‘Yeah, he’s a s***’. 

US Navy veteran Zachary Young, seen here, is suing CNN in a $1 billion defamation suit after he alleged that the network ‘destroyed his reputation’ 

Fuzz Hogan, who is currently employed as a senior director with CNN’s standards and practices department, found himself in the hot seat on the fourth day of trial 

Hogan worked as a fact-checker at the time when the story aired, making him the person responsible for clearing the facts within the story itself.

Messages uncovered between Hogan and Tom Lumley, an editor, showed how the pair discussed the digital version of the story penned by correspondent Alex Marquardt.

Lumley seemed to not agree with its authenticity writing: ‘That story is not poetry in anyway. 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 to Lumley, 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 admitting to calling Young a ‘s***’, he was then asked: ‘And then you went on to approve a 3/4 true story, didn’t you?’ To which he agreed.

He went on to add that he had no concern that report by Tapper had aired too soon or that it was too incomplete.  

Evidence in the case also included text messages from the network’s journalists who described Young as a ‘s***-bag’ and an a**hole’ along with a text that said ‘we gonna nail this Young mf-‘, according to the Los Angeles Times. 

The lawsuit stems from a broadcast from November of 2021 on The Lead with Jake Tapper where the network warned viewers that ‘desperate Afghans still trying to escape the country being preyed on by folks demanding that they pay up big time to get out’

In a magnified conversation between Hogan and Elizabeth Wolfe, a reporter at the network, Hogan appeared to call Young ‘a sh**’

Another text exchange between Hogan and Tom Lumley, an editor at the network, showed the pair discussing the digital version of the story penned by CNN correspondent Alex Marquardt where they admitted it was a ‘half-good story’

During the 2021 broadcast, Marquardt plastered a photo of Young’s face on the air and said that his company was asking for $75,000 to transport a vehicle of passengers to Pakistan and a fee of $14,500 per person to end up in the United Arab Emirates

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’

Tapper first teased the 2021 segment at the center of the suit by warning the network’s viewers of ‘desperate Afghans still trying to escape the country being preyed on by folks demanding that they pay up big time to get out’.

When the broadcast began, Tapper said how 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’.

The segment then switched over to Marquardt himself, who reiterated that Afghans are being exploited and needed to pay an ‘often impossible amount’ to flee the country.

He proceeded to single out Young by plastering a photo of his face on the screen – saying that his company was asking for $75,000 to transport a vehicle of passengers to Pakistan and a fee of $14,500 per person to end up in the United Arab Emirates.

Marquardt added that Young told CNN in a text message that Afghans attempting to flee are expected to have sponsors pay for them due to evacuation costs being ‘highly volatile and based on environmental realities’. 

The 2021 story said that Afghans trying to flee are having to negotiate with private operators who are charging an impossible amount of money for help

To Young, the ‘black market’ label implied some sort of criminality, and he did nothing illegal. 

‘It’s devastating if you’re labeled a criminal all over the world,’ Young testified on Tuesday. 

During his testimony, he went into detail on his extensive training, adding that he was interested in national security of the US and wanted to pursue a career after his time.

He explained that the world is a ‘big place’ and the government can’t do everything to keep America safe, so he believes private contractors are vital.

Young also testified that he couldn’t violate ‘black market’ laws and showed a contract of his employment with DynCorp in 2018.

The contract showed his pay of about $361,000 per year that featured several ethical and legal clauses that if broken, would end in termination without severance.

Young explained the difficulties of evacuating people from Afghanistan – comparing it to a frog jumping carefully from lily pad to lily pad until reaching a taxing border.

‘It’s a very stressful environment,’ he said.

Judge William S. Henry, the 14th Judicial Circuit Court Judge presiding over the trial in Bay County, Florida, has already ruled that Young ‘did not act illegally or criminally’ and ‘did not take money from Afghans’

The 2021 story came after the Biden Administration finalized the decision to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan 

CNN said in court papers that Young’s case amounts to ‘defamation by implication,’ and that he hadn’t actually been accused of nefarious acts. 

The initial story he complained about didn’t even mention Young until three minutes in, CNN lawyer David Axelrod argued on Tuesday.

Five months after the story aired, Young complained about it, and CNN issued an on-air statement that its use of the phrase ‘black market’ was wrong. 

‘We did not intend to suggest that Mr. Young participated in a black market. We regret the error. And to Mr. Young, we apologize’, the network said.

That didn’t prevent a defamation lawsuit, and the presiding judge, William S. Henry, denied CNN’s request that it be dismissed. 

CNN, in a statement, said that ‘when all the facts come to light, we are confident we will have a verdict in our favor.’

Axelrod argued on Tuesday that CNN’s reporting was tough, fair and accurate. 

He told the jury that they will hear no witnesses who will say they thought less of Young or wouldn’t hire him because of the story — in other words, no one to back up his contention that it was so damaging to his business and life.

Judge William S. Henry, the 14th Judicial Circuit Court Judge presiding over the trial in Bay County, Florida, has already ruled that Young ‘did not act illegally or criminally’ despite what the network initially reported on air.

Judge Henry also declared the court found that Young ‘did not take money from Afghans.’