‘I became an outcast’: Navy veteran and CNN duke it out with emotional arguments during direct testimony and combative cross-examination in high-stakes defamation case

Zachary Young hangs his head in a Florida courtroom.

Zachary Young in court during his defamation trial against CNN on Jan. 8, 2025 (Law&Crime).

The U.S. Navy veteran suing CNN for defamation took the stand for the first time on Wednesday as both sides sought to sway a Florida jury with facts and emotion in the potentially costly case.

Plaintiff Zachary Young, a security contractor who extracted people from Afghanistan, claims a 2021 segment that aired on “The Lead with Jake Tapper” falsely painted him as an “illegal profiteer” exploiting “desperate Afghans” with “exorbitant” fees amid the fallout of President Joe Biden’s chaotic withdrawal from the country.

While a key issue in pretrial motions practice — and during opening statements — was CNN’s use of, as well as the network’s definition of, the term “black market,” on Wednesday, Bay County jurors saw the case almost entirely from the perspective of the man himself.

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