CNN defamation trial: Jury undecided as trial moves into second day.

Panama City, Florida – The jury has yet to reach a decision on the high-profile defamation lawsuit against CNN, as arguments continue into Friday morning.

The plaintiff, Zachary Young, a US Navy veteran, In 2021, the Biden administration accused CNN of illegally profiting from helping people flee Afghanistan on the “black market” as the military left the country. Business” on Nov. 11, 2021, in an episode that first aired on CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper.”

The jury deliberated for six hours. Judge William S. Henry of the 14th Judicial District Court, who presided over the trial in Bay County, Florida, had previously negotiated with jurors twice until Thursday night to allow the jury to return early Friday morning. After one of them said they were “hung over and tired”, the judges were given pizza. They were dismissed at 9:18 PM CT.

The trial resumes Friday at 8:15 a.m. CT.

The trial comes after more than three years of litigation and a wild, sometimes chaotic, eight-day trial. The court ruled that “Young did not act illegally or criminally,” despite the network’s earlier on-air reporting.

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Tapper first teased the 2021 episode at the center of the lawsuit, telling CNN viewers that “desperate Afghans are still trying to escape the country, being held by people who demand a lot of money to get out.”

Later in the show, Tapper reminded the audience that the story on “Desperate Afghans” was a continuation of the story.

Once the much-talked-about episode begins, Tapper Marquardt said, “Afghans trying to leave the country face a black market full of prospects, exorbitant fees, and no guarantee of safety or success.”

“Desperate Afghans are being exploited,” Marquardt said, and had to pay “exorbitant, often impossible amounts” to flee the country.

Marquardt then identified Yang, put his face on the screen, and said his company was asking for $75,000 to transport a passenger vehicle to Pakistan, or $14,500 per person to the United Arab Emirates.

“Prices are out of reach for most Afghans,” Marquardt told the audience.

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CNN later alleged that Marquardt tried to call Young, who did not pick up the phone.

“Afghanistan sponsors who try to broadcast to CNN are expected to pay for them,” Marquardt said, adding that the network’s broadcast costs are “highly variable and based on local realities.”

Marquardt Young “repeatedly refused to share the cost or say he was making money,” Marquardt said before playing a clip of an anonymous sympathizer unable to get his family out of Afghanistan.

Marquardt got back to Young saying he had received another text message.

“In another message, Zachary Young, the man who proposed those evacuations, wrote, ‘Availability is extremely limited, and demand is high,’ … He continued, ‘That’s how the economy works, unfortunately,'” Marquardt told the audience.

“Coincidentally, hmm,” Tapper replied before thanking Marquardt for the report.

Other than Young, no other people or companies have been named.

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The episode was shared on social media and was reposted for CNN’s website. Marquardt’s report appeared on CNN’s Jim Acosta Show on November 13 and several times on CNN International.

Every second of the trial was dissected, with CNN’s legal team arguing that Young was not a central part of the story and the prosecution’s team citing “black market” implications that undermined Young’s job as a defense contractor. It was specifically mentioned in the contract he signed as a reason for termination.

Young’s legal team has obtained CNN’s internal messages in a discovery that repeatedly shows staffers showing open hostility toward a Navy veteran. Among those who appeared before the jury was a man who called “shitbag” a “ha–hole” and said he had a “beating face.”

Marquardt’s own message to his colleague, “We’re going to nail this Zachary Young MF—er,” was quoted several times during the trial.

Young claimed to have rescued at least 22 women from Afghanistan, but this information was never reported by CNN.

At one point, CNN’s senior national security editor, Thomas Lumley, came under fire in court after he expressed deep skepticism about a “grossly flawed” report on insider messages. Lumley was called as a witness after he felt the internal messages report was “full of holes like Swiss cheese”.

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On March 25, 2022, CNN apologized on air when replacement anchor Pamela Brown was replaced in Tapper’s chair. However, several CNN employees did not feel the pardon was necessary, CNN Vice President Adam Levine testified that the pardon was only issued for legal purposes.

The hearing included CNN’s lead counsel, David Axelrod, a non-on-air commentator of the same name, repeatedly accusing him and forcing him to apologize for calling the young man a “liar” when he corroborated evidence. They didn’t lie about not getting a job on the farm on the CNN segment.

Axelrod Young insisted that he still had security clearance documents that would prove he could get a job after the CNN episode aired, but it was eventually revealed that his security clearance was set to expire in 2022.

The trial will continue on Friday and will be broadcast live Fox News Digital.

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