Alex Marquardt, who exited CNN months after his reporting helped cost the company millions following a defamation trial, has landed a new gig at Al Jazeera English."I’m very excited to be joining Al Jazeera @AJEnglish in Washington after years of watching their extraordinary coverage from around the world," Marquardt announced Wednesday on social media. Marquardt was famously at the center of a high-profile defamation case brought against him and CNN in 2025 by U.S.Navy veteran Zachary Young.
A Florida jury found that CNN defamed Young and ruled that he could seek punitive damages as a result of a November 2021 report by Marquardt.The report branded Young as a questionable profiteer who exploited "desperate Afghans" trying to flee Afghanistan during the Biden administration's chaotic military withdrawal from the Taliban-run country, implying Young was operating on a "black market." ALEX MARQUARDT OUT AT CNN AFTER EIGHT YEARS; REPORTER WAS AT CENTER OF COSTLY DEFAMATION TRIALAlex Marquardt was famously at the center of a high-profile defamation case brought against him and CNN in 2025 by U.S.
Navy veteran Zachary Young. (Leigh Vogel/Getty Images for CAA; Jessica Costescu; Brandon Bell/Getty Images)The jury had initially awarded Young $5 million in financial and emotional damages before Young and CNN reached an undisclosed settlement, suggesting the network paid Young significantly more money.The jury foreman later told Fox News Digital they were prepared to make CNN pay "somewhere in the neighborhood of $50 million to $100 million" in punitive damages. CNN parted ways with Marquardt roughly five months after the trial, and many of his now-former colleagues told Fox News Digital at the time that it was "obviously" tied to the costly defamation case despite the network declining comment on "personnel matters." Fox News Digital reached out to Marquardt for comment. Al Jazeera, which is largely funded by the government of Qatar, launched the English counter...