Navy veteran who defeated CNN fights Associated Press over 'smuggle' claim in defamation lawsuit

Fox News

6 hours ago

FIRST ON FOX - U.S. Navy veteran Zachary Young and the Associated Press continue to battle through court filings ahead of a critical July 3 hearing in the high-stakes defamation lawsuit.
Young successfully sued CNN for defamation earlier this year after saying the network smeared him by implying he illegally profited from helping people flee Afghanistan on the "black market" during the Biden administration's disastrous 2021 military withdrawal. When covering the trial in January, Associated Press media reporter David Bauder wrote that "Young's business helped smuggle people out of Afghanistan."
Young's legal team took issue with the term "smuggle," and said that the Associated Press article "went even further than CNN's falsehoods" by using a term that "implies criminality." The veteran is seeking nearly $500 million in a defamation suit against the AP.
The AP last week filed a reply in further support of its motion to dismiss, citing Florida's Anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) statute and calling Young's claim "meritless."
"Young concedes that the basic premise of his lawsuit—that the word 'smuggle' necessarily, and in all contexts, conveys criminal wrongdoing—is incorrect," the AP's legal team wrote. "This lawsuit should end here."
Young's legal team fired back on Monday with a scathing response.
"Notably, AP's reply brief in support of its Motion to Dismiss inaccurately asserts that Plaintiff 'concedes' the word 'smuggle' does not necessarily imply criminal wrongdoing. That is false. Plaintiff does not concede and has never conceded that the term 'smuggle' or 'human Smuggling' is ambiguous or context-dependent. To the contrary, Plaintiff's position is that the term is facially defamatory in modern journalistic and legal contexts, and universally understood to imply criminal conduct," Young's legal team wrote.
"That conclusion does not require a jury to resolve disputed meanings. It is a matter of law, supported by AP's own Stylebook, its consistent usage in criminal reporting, and the legal consequences the term carries under federal and international law," they added.
"In fact, the AP Stylebook's definition of 'human smuggling' and 'people smuggling' is telling. It shows that the Associated Press knew exactly what it was doing when it chose to use those specific terms to escalate the false accusations against Plaintiffs," the reply brief continued.
"Instead of reporting the actual news, which was that a jury found CNN liable for defaming Plaintiff and that Plaintiff had been cleared of any wrongdoing, AP chose to focus its story on a false insinuation of criminality. This was not a lapse in judgment. It was a deliberate distortion of the facts that strongly supports an inference of actual malice," it added.
The reply brief states the AP "framed it as 'news,' but it was really 'litigation by byline.'"
"Instead of reporting honestly on the outcome of the CNN case, they tried to repackage the same false accusation under the guise of covering a lawsuit. It wasn't journalism. It was retaliation," Young's legal team wrote.
The reply brief also lays out Young's claim that an average reader would believe "someone financed this illegal operation," which "tracks exactly with AP's own definition of smuggling."
"The Associated Press didn't just ignore the jury's decision; they tried to overrule it. They saw the verdict, saw the ruling, and chose to escalate the same accusation that had already been proven false. That wasn't journalism. It was retaliation," attorney Daniel Lustig told Fox News Digital.
Judge William S. Henry scheduled the next hearing for July 3. He is expected to rule on both the AP's motion to dismiss and Young's amended complaint.
The AP has referred to the lawsuit as "frivolous" in statements to the press.
"The Associated Press thought they could hide behind privilege and the First Amendment while repeating a knowingly false claim. They were wrong. Mr. Young held CNN accountable, and he will do the same with the AP and with others who made the same choice," Michael Pike, another attorney from Young's team, told Fox News Digital.