
Navy veteran seeks nearly $500 million in defamation lawsuit against Associated Press
Fox News
Zachary Young is seeking at least $18 million in economic loss, $50-75 million in reputational harm, $5-10 million in emotional distress and $300-350 million in punitive damages.
Young, who successfully sued CNN for defamation earlier this year, alleged that CNN smeared him by implying he illegally profited when helping people flee Afghanistan on the "black market" during the Biden administration's military withdrawal from the country in 2021. When covering the trial in January, AP media reporter David Bauder wrote that "Young’s business helped smuggle people out of Afghanistan." Brian Flood is a media editor/reporter for FOX News Digital. Story tips can be sent to brian.flood@fox.com and on Twitter: @briansflood.
Young’s legal team has said that the AP article "went even further than CNN’s falsehoods," and previously updated the complaint to include 40 Associated Press articles that use the term "smuggling" to describe criminal conduct.













