AP Photo/Mike Stewart
Florida Judge William Henry sided with a U.S. Navy veteran who is currently seeking damages from CNN for defamation, Friday, giving him the green light to “proceed with his claim for punitive damages.”
Veteran Zachary Young accused CNN of defamation, claiming that the network had “destroyed his reputation and business” after it suggested on Jake Tapper’s The Lead that he had illegally profited from the U.S. military’s withdrawal from Afghanistan.
CNN had filed a motion for summary judgment asking Henry to toss the case.
On Friday, Judge Henry sided with the plaintiff and stated that the court found Young “did not take money from Afghans” and gave him the go-ahead to “proceed with his claim for punitive damages.”
“Despite claiming it did ‘three weeks of newsgathering’ and ‘spoke with more than a dozen sources,’ Defendant’s representatives acknowledged it had no evidence that Young did anything criminal or illegal,” said Judge Henry in his ruling, according to court documents obtained by Fox News. “Yet, Defendant used the Black Market Chyron. This is sufficient evidence upon which a reasonable jury could find with convincing clarity that Defendant acted with actual malice to survive summary judgment on this issue.”
The judge went on to say that while there was “no evidence of illegality,” CNN “published his name and photograph as the poster child bad actor preying on Afghans” anyway.
In one particularly damning moment, Judge Henry also dismissed CNN’s argument that Young had violated the Taliban’s Sharia Law.
“Framing these circumstances as a ‘debate’ between the Taliban rulers and the rest of the free world would be akin to saying it was debatable whether the Nazi extermination of the Jews at Auschwitz was wrong,” he said.
