A Florida jury found CNN liable on Friday in a high-stakes defamation trial against U.S. Navy veteran Zachary Young, who alleged that the network maligned him as an “illegal profiteer” with a report on Afghan evacuees being charged thousands of dollars to flee the country following the U.

Lawyers on both sides delivered impassioned closing arguments on Thursday as Zachary Young’s high-profile defamation lawsuit against CNN heads to the jury.

Zachary Young alleged 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.

A Florida jury began deliberations this afternoon in a security consultant’s defamation lawsuit against CNN. Zachary Young sued the network following a report in 2021 that he sought exorbitant fees to evacuate Afghans in what amounted to a black market in the chaotic U.

Zachary Young alleged CNN defamed him in a report by chief security correspondent Alex Marquardt that said he operated in a "black market."

Jurors remain undecided in the high-stakes CNN defamation trial as deliberation will carry into a second day after mulling over the case for nearly six hours.

A Bay County jury has found in favor of a security consultant who sued CNN for defamation. The jury decided that CNN implicated Zachary Young and his company Nemex Enterprises in a broadcast story about black market evacuations.

After about eight and a half hours of deliberation, jurors reached a verdict that CNN did defame a former U.S. government operative.

The Florida case centers on coverage of a Navy veteran who helped with Afghanistan evacuation, but has broader implications for media industry.

CNN correspondent Katie Bo Lillis was hit with hard-hitting questions by the jurors in the network's high-stakes defamation trial taking place in Panama City, Florida.