Alex Marquardt leaves CNN after defamation loss

Daily Mail​

2 days ago

CNN 's lead national security correspondent, Alex Marquardt, has revealed he is leaving the network - four months after he cost it at least $5million for a defamatory report on Navy veteran Zachary Young. 'Some personal news: I'm leaving CNN after 8 terrific years,' Marquardt wrote to followers on X late Monday morning. 'Tough to say goodbye but it's been an honor to work among the very best in the business,' he added.
No other details were provided, but sources told former CNN media correspondent Oliver Darcy that Marquardt was fired - citing 'editorial differences' with his higher-ups at the network. CNN declined to comment on the development due to it being a 'personnel matter.' Marquardt, meanwhile, thanked his colleagues on CNN's national security team in his cryptic post - the same team who worked on the November 2021 report that landed him in hot water.
It also tarnished CNN's reputation - after jurors ruled Marquardt's report falsely suggested Young illegally profited during the Biden administration's disastrous pullout from Afghanistan . 'We're gonna nail this Zachary Young [expletive]', the longtime correspondent told members of that team in texts used against him in the high-profile case. The text, and a litany of others, saw a six-person jury find CNN guilty of defamation, after Young was repeatedly mentioned during the finished segment from Marquardt that claimed contractors were charging up to $14,000 for 'black market' evacuations.
Young said he'd never accepted any money from Afghans who needed rescue and relied on corporate and nongovernmental organization sponsorships to help people flee - facts not included in the report. It aired on the Lead with Jake Tapper, and opened with Tapper claiming Afghans that were trying to flee the surging Taliban insurgency at the time 'face[d] a black market full of promises, demand of exorbitant fees and no guarantee of safety or success.'
Tapper then cut to CNN's chief security correspondent Marquardt, who claimed that an Afghan man in the US had found some people on Facebook charging $10,000 to evacuate relatives. Marquardt used that to claim 'desperate Afghans are now being exploited' by 'exorbitant and impossible' amounts, before some b-roll brought up a LinkedIn post from Young advertising his services. Young filed his defamation lawsuit in 2022 and successfully alleged that CNN had damaged his reputation by lying that he was taking advantage of the ill-fated operation.
After being threatened by Young, CNN made an apology, before issuing a retraction and removing the segment from public view. But Young, 49, sued anyway. In depositions screened during the hearing that ensued, several senior staffers argued that the network should never have apologized to Young due to Marquardt not specifically saying he was taking advantage of the situation.
Jurors felt differently in January, after seeing Marquardt give similar testimony in footage that proved integral to the case. In a sit-down interview recorded outside of court, the correspondent said he did 'not necessarily' agree with the apology and 'did not believe [the report] was an error.' In an interview with Fox News, Katy Svitenko, one of the jurors, said that testimony was the final straw for juror's already put off by texts between Marquardt and his team that suggested they were out to get Young with their piece. '[Marquardt] was arrogant. He acted as though he really didn't need to be there,' the retired schoolteacher said, after the case's conclusion earlier this year.
'Like he was far too important to be sitting there on the witness stand,' she added. '[The] "I don't feel the need to apologize,"' she added, 'we heard that over and over and over.' 'Alex Marquardt had put in an email, "I'm going to nail this Zachary Young,"' she added of an expletive-ridden message sent by Marquardt to staffer Katie Bo Lillis as they mapped out the report in late 2021. 'Wow this guy is an [expletive],' senior reporter Bo Lillis wrote back to her boss, before slamming Young as a 'scumbag'. 'At that point it seemed as though he had put a target on Mr. Young's back, and he was not going to let up until he reached his goal,' Svitenko said.
'It was obvious to the entire jury that [Marquardt] was out to get him.' Marquardt previously served seven years as a foreign correspondent at ABC News, following a first stint with CNN that lasted only a year. Prior to that, Marquardt - who had been a frequent contributor to the Situation Room - worked as a page for NBC. He studied science, technology and international affairs at Georgetown University. The latest to leave the network following the ousters of Jim Acosta and Chris Wallace, has yet to announce any future plans. Within days of the lawsuit loss, CNN laid off hundreds of staffers - months after another 100 cuts that occurred last summer.