We support our Publishers and Content Creators. You can view this story on their website by CLICKING HERE.

A veteran’s defamation lawsuit against CNN had another success last week when a judge permitted the case to proceed over the objections of CNN’s lawyers.

Zachary Young, a U.S. Navy veteran, was using his business, Nemex Enterprises, to help facilitate evacuations from Afghanistan following the disastrous 2021 withdrawal. But CNN ran a segment on “The Lead With Jake Tapper” that, according to Young’s lawsuit, claimed Young “was ‘exploiting’ ‘desperate Afghans’ by offering evacuations from Afghanistan on a ‘black market.’”

Young sued CNN. According to his lawsuit, Young used “his unique skillset and relationships to assist U.S. corporations and charities that wanted to safely and swiftly extract certain persons from Afghanistan.”

“Contrary to CNN’s untrue and sensationalist reporting, Young never advertised to, or took a single penny from, any Afghan, much less ‘exploited’ ‘desperate Afghans,’” Young’s suit argues. “And he certainly never sold any services on a ‘black market.’ Everything he did was legal.”

And the court also agreed that Young “did not do anything criminal or illegal,” according to Fox News.

On Friday, Judge William Henry denied CNN’s motion for summary judgment, allowing Young to go forward with his suit in seeking punitive damages, according to Fox News. A summary judgment would have allowed Henry to decide the case based on existing evidence without going to trial. But Henry found a jury could find CNN acted with malice.

Henry found that CNN had “no evidence that Young did anything criminal or illegal” and yet went ahead with the “black market” accusation anyway. Henry ruled that CNN, despite claiming “three weeks of newsgathering,” had no facts to back up its insinuations. The court also found that Young “did not take money from Afghans.”

Henry found that CNN had a narrative they wanted to peddle and Young was their scapegoat. Henry pointed to the fact that CNN’s Alex Marquardt had already pitched his story before even talking to Young using what Henry described as “explosive” terms like “price gouging,” “extortion,” “shadowy black market,” and “fraud,” to preemptively malign Young, according to Fox News.

“Then fortuitously, a door was opened to obtain information for the piece when Young reached out to [CNN Reporter Katie Bo Lillis],” Henry ruled, according to Fox News. “Once Young stopped cooperating with the investigative reporters Marquardt found his ‘fall guy’ — Young …”

According to Henry’s ruling, CNN then decided to “rely on its own proffered definition of ‘black market,’ which has been a moving target throughout this litigation …”

“This is sufficient evidence upon which a reasonable jury could find with convincing clarity that Defendant acted with natural malice,” Henry concluded. The civil trial is slated to begin Jan. 6 in the Circuit Court for Bay County, Florida.

CNN had previously attempted to avoid potentially paying punitive damages. Florida law stipulates a publication seeking to avoid punitive damages must publish a “full and fair correction, apology or retraction.”

Tapper issued a statement on March 25, 2022 purporting to retract their previous false reporting. Tapper said, in part, that the chyron used during the story that referenced a “black market” was used “in error” and that CNN “didn’t mean to suggest that Mr. Young participated in the black market,” according to Fox News contributor Jonathan Turley.

But the court reportedly found “the retraction/correction was not made during the other television shows in which the Segment aired. No retraction, correction or apology was posted on any online article or with a social media posting.”

And as Turley explained, the recent court rulings allowing Young to go forward seeking punitive damages “could spell real trouble for CNN.”

Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist. Brianna graduated from Fordham University with a degree in International Political Economy. Her work has been featured on Newsmax, Fox News, Fox Business and RealClearPolitics. Follow Brianna on X: @briannalyman2