by Nicholas Fondacaro
CNN was just handed a slew of legal defeats in the $1 billion defamation case against them. On Monday, Judge William Scott Henry of Florida’s 14th Circuit Court sided with Plaintiff and Navy veteran Zachary Young on multiple motions against CNN, including compelling them to turn over their journalistic conduct guidelines, compelling them to comply with turning over documents necessary for financial discovery, and – much to the chagrin of CNN’s counsel – a deposition of anchor Jake Tapper.
As NewsBusters previously reported, CNN had filed a motion for a protective order to block Tapper from being deposed. Compelling that deposition during financial discovery was the first issue on the hearing docket. CNN counsel Allison Lovelady insisted that the Plaintiff only wanted a deposition so they could use it to “harass CNN and Mr. Tapper.”
In recounting Tapper’s declaration to the court in their motion for a protective order, CNN counsel Allison Lovelady quoted Tapper as saying “I have no knowledge about CNN’s net worth. I don’t have any knowledge regarding what the Tapper show may or may not generate that may go toward CNN’s net worth.”
Judge Henry came down hard on CNN’s effort to keep Tapper from being deposed. When issuing his ruling, the Judge seemingly suggested Tapper was being untruthful. “I kind of have a hard time believing what Mr. Tapper put in that declaration,” he said, referencing Tapper’s stated lack of knowledge. “I have a feeling that is the basis of what time slot he gets and how much his contract is and everything else with CNN.”
The ruling also stipulated that the deposition would be limited to only questions about CNN’s finances and potential internal penalties in relation to getting reporting wrong. This was seemingly done because CNN was also concerned that a deposition of Tapper was a way to “backdoor a fact witness” since facts discovery was closed, according to Lovelady.
Tapper’s deposition was also allowed to proceed because Judge Henry also ruled that CNN must now comply with their previous agreement on when financial discovery would begin.
As NewsBusters reported last week, Florida’s First District Court of Appeals denied the CNN’s motion for a rehearing; their hope was that the court would overturn its decision that Young could seek punitive damages at trial. NewsBusters also reported that CNN was refusing to comply until the Court of Appeals issued their ruling on a rehearing, that’s after the appeals court had already ruled in Young’s favor in June.
But in the Monday hearing, CNN’s lead counsel Deanna K. Shullman attempted to move the goalpost again; wanting to tie financial discovery to a case going before the Florida Supreme Court (Perlmutter v. Federal Insurance Company) because it dealt with a question about punitive damages. The ruling was far from being issued but Shullman predicted that it would be decided in a way that would be beneficial to CNN, but the appeals court had already shot down CNN’s attempt to tie the two together.
Judge Henry overruled CNN’s objection to Young’s motion to comply and gave them 45 days to turn over the documents. The concern expressed by Vel Freedman, lead counsel for Young, was that they would lose the January 6, 2025 start date for the trial. “CNN is trying to make us lose it again,” he said. Shullman didn’t see what the big deal was since they had a back up start, which was two months later.
Finally, CNN was given 14 days to turn over their written journalistic conduct and social media guidelines, which they had been refusing to do, arguing that fact discovery was already closed.
They must like losing lawsuits. I guess they should embrace what they are good at.
Apparently, the judge has watched CNN before. Of COURSE you can’t believe anything Tapper says. It is the task of everyone at CNN to lie and lie consistently.
We already know CNN is mostly all Fake News anyway its been that way when Red Ted Turner Created it and its not going to change