CNN defamation lawsuit: Judge slams CNN general counsel, orders plaintiff to apologize: ‘This is not kindergarten.’

Judge William Henry blasted CNN’s lead counsel in the ongoing defamation trial Wednesday, calling accuser Zachary Young a “liar” for repeatedly apologizing and telling a high-powered attorney that he has completely lost credibility in the courtroom.

“This is not kindergarten. Y’all finished kindergarten a long time ago,” Judge Henry said.

Young, a Navy veteran, sued CNN for allegedly profiting illegally from helping people flee Afghanistan on the “black market” during the 2021 Biden administration’s military withdrawal. In the year In the November 2021 episode, he named him an illegal profiteer who took advantage of “desperate Afghans.”

Young’s lead counsel, Vel Friedman, told Judge Henry on Wednesday that his client learned his security clearance had been lost after the earlier redacted CNN report was released. CNN’s legal team previously suggested that Young’s security clearance was proof of lying about his ability to work following the CNN segment.

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Friedman said he checked his security clearance status after Young testified and discovered it was missing in 2022. As a result, Friedman sought to add testimony from Helio Global, the company that held Young’s now-lost security clearance. In 2022, the jury “resolved” the relationship.

CNN General Counsel David Axelrod, who shares a name with the CNN political analyst, resisted the last-minute effort. However, Friedman insisted that “jurors should not be mistaken,” and Bay County jurors were able to feel that Young still had a safety clearance to this day.

Axelrod insisted he did not mislead jurors, but Judge Henry struck down a “clear misrepresentation” by CNN’s legal team in suggesting the security clearance document was an employment contract.

Judge Henry read aloud a transcript of Axelrod’s opinion last week, calling the charges “fraudulent” and insisting Young “lied” about his earnings, according to the CNN report. He said.

“They called him a liar many times there,” Judge Henry said.

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Judge Henry Axelrod seemed upset that Young used the security clearance to describe him as a “liar,” but objected to a witness who could prove that Young did not actually have the clearance. Friedman told the judge that CNN “knew” that Young no longer had a security clearance, but did not tell the court.

“They knew it wasn’t true,” Friedman said. “CNN put an expert on the fact that Mr. Young knew there was a disconnect, that he didn’t know there was a disconnect, that he had proof of it, that he failed to tell the other side, and then that he still has it.”

Just as the same chaos had erupted last week, Judge Henry asked for a break as he wanted to go back to his room and think things over. He came back and immediately blamed Axelrod.

“I think I’ve commented on the way counsel is conducting the proceedings in this case, everything was a surprise and a last minute thing… a false charge is being filed, the defendants are breaking the rules by sending the defense subpoenas and the defense is doing the same,” Judge Henry said.

“It was represented to the court that we were lucky… it wasn’t lucky, they were doing the same thing the plaintiffs were doing, sending subpoenas to the other party without notice,” he said. Next, CNN’s legal team explained the importance of the security clearance document.

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Judge Henry said CNN’s legal team tried to use the document to argue that the young man was not making money in the industry following the CNN segment and that there was “no way in hell.” The last day.

“Mr. Axelrod, I don’t know how many times in this transcript, I didn’t bring the paper back with me, how many times you called Mr. Young a liar. Security is what the document was held by Helios Global and what he actually testified to,” Judge Henry said.

The judge continued, “I think you apologize for calling Mr. Young a liar so many times in front of this court and so many times around the world.”

He recalled that Justice Henry Axelrod had previously said that he did not want to make the case “who’s going to throw a lot of mud” or make the other side look worse.

Judge Henry then allowed a representative of Helios Global to testify.

Judge Henry said, “I am concerned about all of this. I am very concerned about the level of professionalism or the lack of it.”

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Judge Henry Axelrod had previously implied that the document was the “smoking gun” in the case, but later contradicted himself as it suited the argument.

“At this point, your credibility with me, Mr. Axelrod, is negligible,” Judge Henry said.

Axelrod then apologized.

“I apologize and if you feel I misled you, that was certainly not my intention,” Axelrod said.

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