Project Veritas defamation suit against CNN gets new life at 11th Circuit

ATLANTA (CN) — Far-right activist group Project Veritas can advance defamation claims against CNN over a journalist’s inaccurate on-air statement about the reason for the group’s suspension from Twitter, an 11th Circuit panel ruled on Thursday.

The Atlanta-based appeals court ruledProject Veritas — an organization best known for its undercover video “sting” operations aimed at embarrassing progressive organizations and members of the mainstream media —  plausibly claimed its reputation was maligned under New York law by a CNN journalist who suggested the suspension was for spreading misinformation. The decision reverses a Georgia federal judge’s 2022 dismissal of the case.

Project Veritas was banned from what is now called X in February 2021 for violating the site’s policies against sharing private information without consent, or “doxxing,” by revealing the house number of a residence while trying to interview Facebook vice president Guy Rosen in a video. Ana Cabrera, then a news anchor for CNN, discussed the suspension in a broadcast, suggesting the organization was banned as part of a “broader crackdown” by social media sites on “accounts that are promoting misinformation.”

The three-judge panel ruled that Cabera’s statements “were not substantially true.”

“Veritas committed one infraction — it violated a policy regarding the publishing of private information, but CNN falsely accused it of violating a completely different policy — spreading misinformation. This distinction is not an inconsequential detail,” U.S. Circuit Judge Elizabeth Branch, a Donald Trump appointee, wrote for the panel.

In an emailed statement to Courthouse News on Thursday, president of Project Veritas’s board of directors Ben Wetmore called Cabrera’s statements “a blatant lie” and celebrated the ruling as a “monumental win.”

“CNN has inexplicably failed to retract this defamatory statement even after 3.5 years but today the 11th Circuit rightly ruled that CNN must answer for their lies,” Wetmore said. “We’re now poised to dive into discovery and absolutely obliterate CNN’s fake news narrative. Let the legal reckoning begin.”

A spokesperson for CNN did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday afternoon.

Finding that the case had been incorrectly analyzed by U.S. District Judge Steve Jones, the panel rejected Jones’ findingthat Project Veritas’ reputation would have been maligned even if Cabrera had accurately stated that the ban was due to a violation of the doxxing policy.

Branch wrote that Jones misapplied the law and “improperly considered the potential reputational harms inflicted upon Veritas by the defamatory on-air statement made by Cabrera and the truth as pleaded by Veritas in its complaint.”

An attorney for CNN argued at a hearinglast year that the “reputational sting” to Project Veritas would have been the same whether the network’s anchors said the organization spread misinformation or was suspended for inappropriately sharing personal information.

In a brief concurring opinion, Senior U.S. Circuit Judge Ed Carnes strongly admonished CNN for “downplaying the importance of telling the truth in its broadcasts” in the litigation.

“Through its lawyers CNN has urged this court to adopt the position that under the law it is no worse for a news organization to spread or promote misinformation than it is to truthfully disclose a person’s address in a broadcast,” the George H.W. Bush appointee wrote.

“Truth is not an immaterial detail. Truth matters a great deal to a journalistic organization’s credibility, reputation, and brand; it matters far more than not disclosing a person’s address does,” Carnes added.

CNN has also argued the statements were made in the context of a broader discussion about how social media sites should control bad actors and content which violate their community standards.

The 11th Circuit refused to take up that reasoning, instead finding that average viewers would simply conclude from Cabrera’s statements that Project Veritas was suspended from X for spreading misinformation and would think less favorably of the organization.

That kind of accusation “cuts straight to the heart of Veritas’ journalistic obligations,” Branch wrote.

The appeals court ruled that Project Veritas presented sufficient facts to infer that Cabrera made her statements “with knowledge or a reckless disregard for the truth.”

Branch pointed to a tweet published by Cabrera before the on-air statements which accurately reported the ban, as well as an article written for CNN’s website by a different reporter, in finding that the news network knew the true reason for Project Veritas’ suspension but still inaccurately reported the news.

However, the panel noted that a determination on whether CNN “entertained doubts of falsity” or was aware that Cabrera’s statements were false “is ultimately a question for a later stage.”

Project Veritas’ X account was reinstated after Elon Musk took over the platform.

U.S. Circuit Judge Andrew Brasher, a Trump appointee, rounded out the panel.

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