Panama City, FL – Week Two of the $1 billion defamation trial against CNN kicked off Monday with the testimony of CNN chief national security correspondent Alex Marquardt, the architect of the allegedly defamatory report. The key moments from this time on the witness stand were when he refused to apologize to Navy veteran and Plaintiff Zachary Young, doubled down on the false assertions that Young was interested in taking money from Afghans, and getting pressed by plaintiff’s counsel on being war profiteer himself.
And perhaps most telling were the nine questions submitted to Marquardt by the jury, which appeared to suggest CNN was in trouble in their eyes.
Marquardt was under pressure from the get-go with plaintiff’s lead counsel Vel Freedman asking him if he had reached out to Audible and Bloomberg, two of Young’s clients, to fact-check if he had…
