Associated Press filed a motion to dismiss on Monday the demand for the slander of the United States Navy veteran of the Navy, insisting that the complaint is “without merit” and unfairly challenges the rights of free voice.
Young successfully succeeded CNN by slander earlier this year after saying that the network affected him, which meant that he benefited illegal when he helped people flee from Afghanistan to the “black market” during the military withdrawal of the country’s Biden administration in 2021.
When he covered the trial in January, Associated Press’s media journalist David Bauder wrote that “Young’s business helped smuggle people in Afghanistan.”
Young’s legal team said that the article of Associated Press “went even beyond CNN falsehoods” and updated the original complaint to include 40 AP articles that use the term “smuggling” to describe criminal behavior.
The court previously ruled that Young did nothing illegal and seek about $ 500 million in a lawsuit demand against the AP.
The AP believes that Young’s dress should be launched.
“It is rewarded with the affirmation in a facial manner that the AP made the same accusation, that young people had dedicated to criminal activities in relation to their Afghan evacuations, which the article made it clear that a jury had rejected in the case of CNN,” the AP legal team wrote in the motion to dismiss.
“The AP now asks the court to dismiss this lawsuit with prejudice by virtue of the Florida Antispp Statute … which protects” the rights of freedom of expression in relation to public issues, “the motion continued.
“This is a classic Slapp demand: a lack of demand[s] Legal merit, but threatening to cool the speech by imposing legal expenses crushing. “”
The AP believes that its reports are protected by the privilege of the Florida Florida report, which its legal team wrote “safeguarding the press’s ability to report on legal procedures and other official procedures”.
In addition, the AP’s legal team wrote that the article “cannot be reasonably read as transmitting anything defamatory” about Young or his company, Nemex Enterprises.
Young’s lawyer, Daniel Lustig, said that the motion was expected to say goodbye and he hopes that the navy veteran will prevail.
“The position of AP is that words do not mean what they mean. This was the defense of CNN. Zachary Young spent almost three years fighting this fiction and after a court ruled in favor and a jury stated, the matter should have ended. But now it has returned to the same courtroom, facing the same defense, advanced by the same criminal, Of a crime, “he told Fox News Digital.
“If this feels familiar, it is because it is. The only thing that has been changed is the header logo. The AP called Mr. Young a human smuggler, issued him all over the world and now claims that he meant it in a pleasant way. When he asked them to correct a single word, they refused.”
The AP has referred to demand as “frivolous” in statements past the press.
The motion was filed in the 14th Court of Judicial Circuit in the county of Bay, Florida, the same court where Young prevailed against CNN.
Young is looking for at least $ 18 million in economic loss, $ 50-75 million in reputational damage, $ 5-10 million in emotional distress and $ 300-350 million in punitive damage, according to a presentation notice.
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