CNN Defamation Trial: Security Consultant Testifies On His Texts Telling Reporter “No Afghan Is Expected To Pay For Evacuation Costs”

deadline.com:

A security consultant testified in the second day of his defamation trial against CNN, as his attorney ran through a series of text messages with the network reporters.

Zachary Young claims that he was defamed by a a false 2021 report that tarred him with exploiting Afghan family members by charging exorbitant fees to get them out of the country during the chaotic U.S.

withdrawal. On the stand today, Young testified about his interactions with CNN’s Katie Bo Lillis on Nov. 3, 2021. Young said that he reached out to the network because he thought they needed help in evacuation operations from Afghanistan.

But Lillis told him that she was actually working :on some reporting related to ongoing efforts to help get at-risk Afghans out of the country and your name came up in a couple of conversations recently.” He said that he would cooperate with the story but did not want to be named. “I didn’t ask for anything in return except to not be named in the story,” Young told jurors in the Florida courtroom.