At a time where polls show there is a growing mistrust in legacy media, attorney Devin Freedman (aka Velvel, or Vel, as many in court refer to him) scored a major victory against CNN, as a Florida jury awarded his client, former Navy veteran and CIA-trained Zachary Young, $5 million in compensatory damages. CNN then settled for an undisclosed amount for punitive damages from what was a $1 billion lawsuit.
Freedman lambasted the network, telling the six-person jury before it went into deliberations: “CNN is so arrogant. They are so used to getting whatever they want without being held to account that they stand up here and they talk down to us with bold face lies about what the segment just really is, and they expect you to believe it. I mean, do they think we’re all stupid? If after reviewing the evidence you’ve seen, after watching CNN’s pretentious and self-righteous reporters deny their own words over and over, change their stories over and over, express discomfort at owning their own words, twisting themselves into pretzels to explain them away, you still don’t agree with me, I don’t want a dime.”
In an interview with The Jewish Press, Freedman, who has semicha and wore a yarmulka during the proceedings that streamed online and can be seen on YouTube, said he believes this is the first time an individual took a major network to trial, won the case and it was ruled the complainant could receive punitive damages.
He said it was his first case that was streamed online, and he knew it would get national attention.
“I wasn’t nervous,” Freedman said. “I was confident based on the evidence we’d win.”
Freedman said he’d previously had a case that he won where his client was awarded more than $100 million, but this case was especially important to him due to the need to hold news organizations accountable at a time where they sometimes prioritize clicks and views.
In 2021, amid then President Biden’s orders for troops to leave Afghanistan, CNN’s “The Lead With Jake Tapper” aired a segment on November 11 about the “black market” that existed where people would charge large fees to get Afghans out of the country. The banner at the bottom of the screen read: “CNN Investigation. Afghans Trying To Flee Taliban Face Black Markets, Exorbitant Fees, No Guarantee of Safety or Success.” Young’s face was shown in the latter portion of the segment after two people who complained about prices to get out of Afghanistan had their faces blacked out, with one in Kabul and another in California saying his family could be killed if they didn’t get out.
CNN’s Alex Marquardt reported the story, and, from the segment, it appeared he called Young and got no answer. Young claimed he received no call and later was texted that he only had two hours to respond to questions and he said it was not enough time and warned he would take legal action if slandered. In an email to his editor, Marquardt wrote he was going to “nail” him in reference to Young. CNN national security editor Thomas Lumley e-mailed that the story was “full of holes like Swiss cheese” but tried to backtrack on the stand.
Young joined the Navy but had an injury and worked for Blackwater. He did security for high profile subjects in Afghanistan and Pakistan. While in Vienna, he used contacts to get three women out of Afghanistan on behalf of Audible, four for Bloomberg and 15 for nonprofit organizations.
CNN’s legal team told the jury they used Young’s own words from messages to people that the rate was $75k for a vehicle of five to six passengers to go from Afghanistan to Peshawar, Pakistan, or $17k for one person on a plane out of Afghanistan.
The case revolved around whether the TV segment and article using the phrase “black market” would lead people to think Young was doing something illegal and or preying on Afghans. The court found he hadn’t done anything illegal and there was no evidence he took money from Afghans.
In a bizarre moment, in a previously recorded deposition shown during the trial, the CNN producer who worked on the segment, Michale Conte, confirmed a message he wrote was true-that he thought Young had a “punchable face.” On another day, the judge told CNN lawyer David Axelrod, “Your credibility is about none.”
CNN did issue an apology on air. But Freedman said Young was adamant that there be a trial.
“My client was unwilling to settle until he was able to clear his name,” Freedman said.
He also said CNN didn’t contact any colleagues of Young for the story or for the trial as they would have given a very different story.
“CNN was well aware of all these people that Zach said were part of his network that respected him, and they could have forced them to testify but they didn’t,” Freedman said.
Freedman also said Young, who took the witness stand, was articulate and explained how CNN tried to make him look bad without doing due diligence to get the full story.
In April 2023, Fox News settled a defamation case from Dominion Voting Systems for $787 million, In 2020, CNN settled a defamation case from Nick Sandmann when he said the network falsely accused him of engaging in racist conduct. About a month ago, ABC settled with President Donald Trump for $15 million after host and commentator George Stephanopoulos said on air that Trump had been found liable for rape, when in fact, in a civil trial, where E. Jean Carroll alleged defamation, the jury believed there was sexual assault but not rape.
News outlets like to avoid trial because in discovery, electronic messages can be used in court.
Will this change how news outlets operate, and could Freedman have won this case if it occurred ten years ago?
He said he isn’t sure regarding the media and that people are still not careful and put incriminating things in messages.
“I think 10 years ago the media wasn’t doing what it’s doing now,” Freedman said, adding that now the goal is often to get eyeballs through sensational stories.
Freedman, who graduated from Columbia School of Law, said he became observant at the age of seven. He said his Chabad education, where he had to speak publicly many times, may have, to an extent, helped in his ability to connect with juries.
He said he is not a pulpit rabbi, and he worked on the case for more than two and a half years.
Could Israel or any country sue a news outlet for defamation?
“Yes,” Freedman said. “But it has to prove publication of something false and that it was done with malice.”
