PANAMA CITY, FL -- On Friday, CNN’s lead counsel in the $1 billion defamation trial against them, David Axelrod (not to be confused with the CNN commentator of the same name) had yet another angry outburst at a witness on the stand. After going berserk on Navy veteran and Plaintiff Zachary Young the previous day, decorated Army Major General James V. Young (no relation to the plaintiff) was in Axelrod’s sights; accusing Gen. Young of being willing to let a “hypothetical” little girl die rather than save her from the Taliban.
Under the direct examination of plaintiff's counsel Kyle Roche, Gen. Young testified to his background in the intelligence field and his board/case officer positions with AA21, a non-profit that also getting Americans and allies out of Afghanistan during the collapse. He recounted the gripping story of Operation Baby Bus, which involved getting two buses loaded with people (including a mother who was nine-months pregnant) evacuated.
It was that testimony that Axelrod decided to focus on and direct his rage during his cross-examination.
Axelrod started off cordially enough. He thanked Gen. Young for his military service and his work in getting people out of Afghanistan, but by the end, he accused the witness of being okay with dead little girls.
Being that Gen. Young had testified during direct that “no” he wouldn’t hire Z. Young after the offending CNN report aired because he was a reputational risk, Axelrod cooked up a “hypothetical” scenario where a 16-year-old girl needed rescuing from the Taliban.
This fictitious situation seemed to initially be brought up as a way to impeach Z. Young’s business model of only evacuating corporately sponsored Afghans:
AXELROD: When you’re talking about Afghanistan in 2021, you’re talking about a desperate situation…You thought that Mr. Young was providing a service that could help someone like that.
GEN. YOUNG: He was providing a service that helped many people.
AXELROD: That was an important service. Right?
GEN. YOUNG: Yes.
AXELROD: And if that 16-year-old girl was there today risking death or worse You’d want Mr. Young helping you. Right?
That’s despite Axelrod also attempting to argue that Z. Young was charging too much: “And when you have a desperate situation like that, sometimes people come in charging high prices for things - prices that wouldn’t exist in normal circumstances.”
That desperation became overtly apparent when Axelrod tried to use that scenario to smear and morally blackmail Gen. Young into saying he would hire Z. Young to save her that very day in trial. Axelrod started shouting and accusing him of being willing to leave that fake 16 y/o girl to a horrific fate to the Taliban rather than hire Z. Young. Gen. Young said they would "try other methods" to extract the girl:
AXELROD: Assuming he’s still got that network and that 16-year-old-girl is in Afghanistan and in danger, you would hire Mr. Young to get her out would you?
(...)
GEN. YOUNG: This was asked earlier and I said “No, I would not hire him in my capacity at AA21.”
(...)
AXELROD: Let’s dig into that. So, your testimony to this jury is that if you were still at AA21, and you knew there was a 16-year-old girl there who was going to get killed or married off, and you could hire Mr. Young to get her out, you’re telling this jury that because of the CNN publications, you wouldn’t do that.
GEN. YOUNG: And I was asked earlier and I said “No.” For AA21, I think there was too much risk of reputation involved.
AXELROD: Because of the CNN publication?
GEN. YOUNG: YES:
AXELROD: So you will let that 16-year-old die or something worse happen to her because of the CNN story?
GEN. YOUNG: We’d try other methods.
AXELROD: And what if those didn’t work? You’d just let her die, huh? That’s your testimony?
GEN. YOUNG: No, that’s not my testimony…We’d try other methods…We’d keep trying.
Axelrod started shouting again when pressing Gen. Young about not speaking with anyone about Z. Young’s reputation, despite repeatedly objecting to Z. Young’s testimony about others’ thoughts on his reputation. Gen. Young countered by explaining he answered in his professional capacity and anyone who had a CNN story like that was "a risk."
Seemingly under the impression he had found a viable avenue of attack, Axelrod tried to suggest that since Z. Young still had his security clearance that the federal government had deemed him not a risk in seeming contradiction to Gen. Young. "I think you're conflating two different things," Gen. Young said, noting there's a difference between "reputational risk and national security risk."
During redirect, Gen. Young testified “sure” he would have hired Z. Young anytime before the CNN report aired.
It’s worth noting that General Young was the same expert witness CNN wanted to kick off the case because he was just too good and brought too many facts to the jury.
