U.S. Navy Veteran Zachary Young is seeking nearly $500 million in his defamation lawsuit against the Associated Press.
Young is seeking at least $18 million in economic loss, $50-75 million in reputational harm, $5-10 million in emotional distress and $300-350 million in punitive damages, according to a Notice of Filing obtained by Fox News Digital.
Young, who successfully sued CNN for defamation earlier this year, alleged that CNN smeared him 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. When covering the trial in January, AP media reporter David Bauder wrote that “Young’s business helped smuggle people out of Afghanistan.”
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Young’s legal team has said that the AP article “went even further than CNN’s falsehoods,” and previously updated the complaint to include 40 Associated Press articles that use the term “smuggling” to describe criminal conduct.
In Friday’s filings, Young’s counsel, Daniel Lustig from Pike & Lustig, also asked for a slew of the AP’s internal communications, including anything related to Young, the article in question, editing of the article, the word “smuggle,” anytime an AP staffer communicated about Young with CNN employees and post-publication discussions about the article.
Young’s team also requested other AP stories using the term “smuggle,” along with all documents reflecting AP’s internal editorial standards, policies, guidelines, practices, and training materials.
In the Notice of Filing, Lustig detailed where he came up with each figure, writing that the amounts are supported by experts who testified in the CNN trial.
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“AP’s conduct meets the standard for punitive damages under Fla. Stat. § 768.72. It published a false and defamatory statement that Mr. Young’s company ‘helped smuggle people out of Afghanistan’—a federal felony accusation—despite the existence of jury verdict in Mr. Young’s favor, a court ruling finding he had not committed any crime, a formal retraction demand sent prior to litigation, and extensive public record evidence to the contrary,” Lustig wrote.
The AP has defended its reporting.
“AP’s story was a factual and accurate report on the jury verdict finding in Zachary Young’s favor. We will vigorously defend our reporting against this frivolous lawsuit,” an AP spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
JURY FINDS CNN COMMITTED DEFAMATION AGAINST NAVY VETERAN, SETTLEMENT REACHED ON PUNITIVE DAMAGES
The figures that Young is seeking are subject to change pending further discovery.
In January, a 6-person jury decided Young was owed $4 million in lost earnings, $1 million in personal damages such as pain and suffering and said that punitive damages were warranted against CNN. A settlement was reached before punitive damages were decided by the jury.
Young is seeking the same venue for his lawsuit against the AP as he had with CNN: Bay County, Florida.
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