Veteran who beat CNN in court resumes fight to clear name

FIRST ON FOX — U.S. Navy veteran Zachary Young, who successfully sued CNN for defamation earlier this year, filed a lawsuit against U.S. News & World Report on Wednesday as he continues to fight to clear his name. 

In January, a Florida jury found that CNN defamed Young 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. Young was awarded $4 million in lost earnings, $1 million in personal damages such as pain and suffering, and the jury found that punitive damages are also warranted against CNN. 

Young, who has since sued the Associated Press and Puck over coverage of the CNN trial, filed his latest lawsuit against U.S. News & World Report. The dust-up started in January when AP media reporter David Bauder wrote that “Young’s business helped smuggle people out of Afghanistan” when covering the CNN trial. Bauder’s report is at the center of Young’s separate lawsuit against the AP, and U.S. News & World Report republished the story, which is common practice for news outlets, before eventually retracting it. 

U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT RETRACTS AP ARTICLE ABOUT VETERAN ZACHARY YOUNG, BUT AP STANDS BY THE STORY

In a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Bay County, Florida which has been obtained by Fox News Digital, Young’s lawyer, Daniel Lustig, wrote that U.S. News & World Report’s retraction didn’t go “far enough,” and his client gave the outlet a chance to correct the mistake before a lawsuit was filed. 

“We gave U.S. News every opportunity to do the right thing — to correct what was clearly false, to make it right by correcting and acknowledging what smuggling means. They had already issued a retraction, but it didn’t go far enough. It was not a full retraction, and it was not a fair one. Words matter. The word they used meant something serious, and they knew it,” Lustig wrote. 

Once Young objected to the AP accusing him of smuggling people, U.S. News & World Report removed its pickup of the story and chalked it up to a “possible misunderstanding.” 

NAVY VETERAN WHO PROVED CNN DEFAMED HIM SUES ASSOCIATED PRESS, SAYS HE WAS FALSELY PAINTED AS ‘SMUGGLER’

“RETRACTION: U.S. News & World Report has removed the article previously available at this URL that had been published on January 17, 2025, entitled ‘Florida Jury Says CNN Defamed Navy Veteran in Story About Endangered Afghans.’ The article was reported and written by the Associated Press (AP). As an AP subscriber, U.S News regularly republishes multiple AP articles on a daily basis,” U.S. News & World Report wrote on the page where the AP report used to exist. 

“The AP article reported that the jury found that a CNN report on Mr. Young had falsely implied he had engaged in illegal conduct,” U.S. News & World Report continued. “The AP article also stated that ‘Young’s business helped smuggle people out of Afghanistan.’ Mr. Young subsequently contacted U.S. News and objected to the word ‘smuggle’ as accusing him of engaging in criminal activity. In republishing the article, U.S. News had no intention to suggest that Mr. Young’s actions were unlawful. Nevertheless, to avoid any possible misunderstanding, U.S. News has removed and retracts the AP article.”

The retraction did not sit right with Young. 

“We didn’t rush to court — we were forced by a refusal from U.S. News to take responsibility and their decision to not tell the truth. The media has a profound responsibility to the public, and if they can’t be trusted to acknowledge what words mean and the damage they can cause, we will continue holding them accountable in court. That is the only way. If they don’t want to take responsibility, it will be up to the people of Florida to keep them honest,” Lustig told Fox News Digital. 

U.S. News & World Report did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

JURY FINDS CNN COMMITTED DEFAMATION AGAINST NAVY VETERAN, SETTLEMENT REACHED ON PUNITIVE DAMAGES

In the court filing, Young’s attorney said it’s “categorically false” to say that Young smuggled anyone and noted that “human smuggling” is a felony under U.S. law and courts ruled he did nothing illegal during his Afghanistan evacuation effort. 

The AP has previously defended the reporting and did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the lawsuit against U.S. News & World Report. 

“AP’s story was a factual and accurate report on the jury verdict finding in Zachary Young’s favor,” an AP spokesperson previously said. 

Young is seeking compensatory and other damages, and will likely seek to amend the lawsuit to include punitive damages at a later date.