As NewsBusters was first to report, in April, the Associated Press was sued for defamation by U.S. Navy veteran Zachary Young with combined damages possibly reaching $453 million. In a Monday filing obtained by NewsBusters, the AP via their lawyer Charles Tobin (who also represented CNN during Young’s successful defamation trial against them) requested that the court dismiss the case.
Throughout the filing, the AP referred to Young’s accusations as “meritless defamation claims” and asked Judge William Scott Henry of Florida’s 14th Judicial Circuit (who also oversaw the CNN trial) to “dismiss this lawsuit with prejudice under Florida’s Anti-SLAPP statute, which protect ‘the rights of free speech in connection with public issues.’”
Arguing that “Florida courts have long favored early adjudication of meritless defamation claims in order to protect First Amendment values,” the filing further pressed for a dismissal saying:
The Anti-SLAPP statute provides that no person may file any lawsuit against another “without merit and primarily because such person or entity has exercised the constitutional right of free speech in connection with a public issue . . . as protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and s. 5, Art. I of the State Constitution.” Section 768.295(3), Florida Statutes. The statute grants defendants the “right to an expeditious resolution” of such claims, and allows them to challenge the claims at the outset of the case, through either, or both, a motion to dismiss or a motion for summary judgment supported by affidavits.
The filing framed the suit against the AP as hinging on one word in one sentence of their article: “Young’s business helped smuggle people out of Afghanistan, but he said he worked exclusively with deep-pocketed outside sponsors like Bloomberg and Audible.”
Young’s initial complaint suggested that it’s similar to how CNN used language against him that implied criminality; the word was “black market” in the CNN case.
“The clear and unmistakably message of the Article is positive toward Young,” the AP said (emphasis used in the filing). “The Article not only conveyed that he prevailed in his defamation lawsuit against CNN by winning a multi-million dollar jury verdict, it also made clear that he specifically received vindication on his contention that CNN falsely ‘implied he was involved in something illegal.’ The Article also, in its very first sentence, characterized the business activities of Young’s that were addressed in CNN’s reporting as involving ‘help[ing] rescue endangered Afghans.’”
As NewsBusters previously reported, Young’s initial complaint against the AP argued that their reporting suggested that he had committed a felony under United States law:
Describing Mr. Young’s lifesaving evacuations as “smuggling” is not only grossly misleading, it charges Mr. Young with a serious crime. Human smuggling is a grave felony under U.S. law (8 U.S.C. § 1324), and it is condemned as a serious crime under international law (the U.N. Protocol Against the Smuggling of Migrants). By accusing Mr. Young of human smuggling, AP effectively branded him a criminal.
In a Facebook post from February 6 2019, the AP Stylebook wrote this about human smuggling: “Human smuggling or people smuggling typically involves transporting people across an international border illegally, with their consent, in exchange for a fee.”
