CNN suffered a huge setback in a Florida court on Dec. 9 when a state judge denied the network’s efforts to dismiss a case against a Navy veteran who helped civilians flee the country in the final days of President Joe Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Zachary Young was running a security consulting company in 2021 when CNN ran a story on The Lead with Jake Tapper implying that Young was illegally profiting from Afghan refugees trying to flee the incoming Taliban forces.