Along the way to CNN losing a major defamation lawsuit, the attorney representing the network received a blistering rebuke from the Florida judge overseeing the case.
Zachary Young, who is a security consultant, sued the network alleging CNN “destroyed his reputation and business” by branding him an “illegal profiteer” who exploited “desperate Afghans” during a Nov. 11, 2021, report by the network’s senior national security correspondent Alex Marquardt on CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper,” Fox News reported.
The Panama City jury on Friday awarded Young $5 million in damages, including $4 million in lost business and $1 million in personal damages.
The jury was also set to decide what punitive damages CNN should also pay, but Fox reported that an undisclosed settlement amount was reached following the jury verdict.
Two days before the verdict, Fourteenth Judicial Circuit Court Judge William Henry tore into David Axelrod, the lead attorney for CNN, according to Law and Crime.
“I’m overly concerned with the level of professionalism or lack thereof that’s here,” Henry said after complaining about misrepresentations coming from the defense.
“Right now your credibility with me, Mr. Axelrod, is about none. If you understand that?” the judge said.
In one bit of back-and-forth, Henry said he would have what Axelrod said read back if necessary.
“Your honor, the point I’m trying to make …” Axelrod began
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“I’m tired of these blatant misrepresentations that are being made,” Henry said, adding a dig at defense attorney Devin Freedman as well.
“And they’re being made by both of y’all. And maybe they’re not 100 percent lies. Maybe they’re leaving out a little bit of the truth. And making representations, so you can carefully say: ‘Well, I didn’t exactly say that,’” Henry said.
“We don’t lawyer like this around here,” he said. “We don’t play the shenanigans anymore in this case.”
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Henry said he was irked by late-breaking discovery efforts concerning evidence introduced late in the game.
“This isn’t kindergarten. Y’all matriculated from kindergarten a long, long time ago,” he told Axelrod, according to Fox News.
Henry teed off on Axelrod in connection with disputes over Young’s defunct security clearance.
“Mr. Axelrod, I don’t know how many times in this transcript, I didn’t bring the paper back with me, how many times you called Mr. Young a liar. But yet, in his deposition, he acknowledged having his security being held by Helios Global. Which is exactly what that document is and exactly what he testified to,” Henry said.
“I think an apology from you is clearly in order to Mr. Young for the number of times in front of this court, and streamed around the world, that you called Mr. Young a liar,” Henry said..
Henry noted that the case would not be decided by “who can sling the most mud.”
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