Paramount, the parent company of CBS News, has agreed to pay Donald Trump $16 million to settle the president’s lawsuit over the editing of a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris that the network's lawyers had deemed “meritless” in recent court filings, the company revealed Tuesday evening.
The payment to the sitting president of the United States comes as Paramount is looking to close an $8 billion merger with Skydance Media that will require final approval from the Trump administration. Shari Redstone, the company’s top shareholder, had made it clear that she favored settling the lawsuit with Trump in order to clear the way for the Skydance deal to go through.
The media conglomerate soon found itself under intense fire from Democratic senators who had already promised to launch a congressional probe into potential anti-bribery violations if the company reached a paid settlement with the president.
“This looks like bribery in plain sight,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) tweeted Wednesday. “Paramount folded at the same time it needs Trump's approval for a billion-dollar merger. I’m calling for an investigation into whether any anti-bribery laws were broken, and I'm working on a new bill to rein in this kind of corruption.”
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), who had previously joined Warren and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in the warning to Paramount about settling with the president, also labeled the payment to Trump as a “bribe for merger approval” while claiming he’ll “be first in line calling for federal charges” when Demcorats retake the Senate. “In the meantime, state prosecutors should make the corporate execs who sold out our democracy answer in court, today,” he added.
The progressive lawmakers weren’t alone in threatening legal action against Paramount. The Freedom of the Press Foundation, which vowed in May to file a lawsuit on behalf of Paramount shareholders if a settlement was reached, said that the group “will continue to pursue our legal options to stop this affront” and to hold the company’s board accountable.
“Today is a dark day for press freedom. Paramount’s spineless decision to settle Trump’s baseless and patently unconstitutional lawsuit is an insult to the journalists of ‘60 Minutes’ and an invitation to Trump to continue targeting other news outlets,” Seth Stern, the foundation’s director of advocacy, told The Independent on Wednesday. “Each time a company cowers and surrenders to Trump’s demands, it only emboldens him to do it again.”
“Companies often settle litigation to avoid the high and somewhat unpredictable costs of legal defense, the risk of an adverse judgment that could result in significant financial or reputational damage, and the disruption to business operations that prolonged legal battles can cause,” Paramount Global said in a statement. “Settlement offers a negotiated resolution that allows companies to focus on their core objectives rather than being mired in uncertainty and distraction.”
The looming payoff to the president, which seemed all but inevitable in recent days after the two sides told a Texas court they were involved in “good faith, advanced, settlement negotiations,” has sparked anger among the CBS staff and led to low morale as well as the resignations of two of the network’s news leaders. The resolution also came mere hours before the company’s annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday.
Paramount noted that the terms of the settlement, which were proposed by the mediator in the case, include the company paying the plaintiffs’ legal fees and costs. Trump was joined in the lawsuit by Rep. Ronnie Jackson (R-TX), a longtime ally and his one-time presidential physician.
A spokesman for the president’s legal team framed the settlement as a historic victory that proved the merits of the case, despite the fact that Trump settled for a tiny fraction of the $20 billion he was seeking.
"With this record settlement, President Donald J. Trump delivers another win for the American people as he, once again, holds the Fake News media accountable for their wrongdoing and deceit,” the spokesman said. “CBS and Paramount Global realized the strength of this historic case and had no choice but to settle. President Trump will always ensure that no one gets away with lying to the American People as he continues on his singular mission to Make America Great Again."
No money will be paid directly to the president or Jackson, as the remaining funds, minus legal costs, will be allocated to Trump’s future presidential library. This is a similar arrangement that Disney reached last year in Trump’s defamation lawsuit over comments made by ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos.
The settlement also includes a release of all claims made by the president regarding CBS reporting through Tuesday, which includes both the disputed 60 Minutes interview and other defamation actions that Trump has threatened in recent months.
Paramount has also agreed to release the transcripts of 60 Minutes interviews with presidential candidates in the future after the segments have aired, subject to redactions as required for legal or national security concerns.
Notably, the settlement does not include an apology or statement of regret, which reportedly was a major sticking point for Trump during the monthslong mediation process. Reportedly, the president – who initially sued for $20 billion – was seeking at least $25 million and an on-air apology.
While the settlement comes amid the pending merger that would eventually place Paramount under the control of David Ellison, the son of Trump-backing mogul Larry Ellison, the company has insisted that the lawsuit is “completely separate from, and unrelated to” the transaction and the FCC approval process. Brendan Carr, the president’s handpicked FCC chairman, has also stated that the two issues are not linked.
“No one is a fan of Shari right now,” one network staffer told The Independent on Tuesday evening. “People are still angry and frustrated and morale is very low.”
While the Paramount board and Redstone – who recused herself from the settlement negotiations and is currently fighting thyroid cancer – had long indicated that they preferred to settle to make the matter go away ahead of the major media merger, the network’s lawyers continued to fight the case in court.
After moving to dismiss the case earlier this year, CBS News’ attorneys filed a memo in support of the motion just last week. “The chilling effect of Plaintiffs’ meritless assault on the First Amendment compels dismissal now,” the filing noted.
Well before the resolution of the lawsuit was complete on Tuesday night, the specter of settling a lawsuit that most legal experts deemed “frivolous”, and the network itself said was clearly “without merit,” to a president who has labeled the free press “the enemy of the people” had led to rising tensions within CBS News.
Adding to the turmoil over the handling of Trump’s legal attacks was the additional scrutiny Redstone and other executives applied to 60 Minutes over the past few months, especially over stories they felt were overly critical of the president. Though the network didn’t kill any stories amid the increased pressure, 60 Minutes executive producer Bill Owens resigned in April because he felt he was unable “to make independent decisions” due to corporate interference.
CBS News chief Wendy McMahon would follow a month later, noting that she did “not agree on the path forward” with the company. Both of the newsroom leaders had explicitly noted to the upper brass that they would not apologize for the interview as part of any arrangement with Trump.
On Wednesday morning, the Writers Guild of America East —which represents journalists at 60 Minutes and CBS News — issued a statement denouncing the settlement.
“The Writers Guild of America East stands behind the exemplary work of our members at ‘60 Minutes’ and CBS News,” WGA East stated. “We wish their bosses at Paramount Global had the same courage to do the same. This settlement is a transparent attempt to curry favors with an administration in the hopes it will allow Paramount Global and Skydance Media merger to be cleared for approval. Paramount’s decision to capitulate to Trump threatens journalists’ ability to do their job reporting on powerful public figures.”
Amid the resignations and the continued discussions of a settlement over the editing down of one of Harris’ answers to a question, the frustration at CBS News eventually boiled to the surface. “It would be very damaging to CBS, to Paramount, to the reputation of those companies,” 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley told CNN last month.
Another 60 Minutes correspondent, CBS News legend Lesley Stahl, said in a New Yorker interview that she’s “angry” at Redstone for looking to settle with Trump, adding that she’s “pessimistic” and “we’re in very dark times.”
On top of that, all seven correspondents of the vaunted newsmagazine sent a letter in May to Paramount co-chief executives George Cheeks, Brian Robbins, and Chris McCarthy warning of the reputational damage a settlement would cause the network and the show.
“They pointedly expressed concern that Paramount is failing to put up a fierce and unrelenting fight in the face of Trump’s lawsuit over the program’s Kamala Harris interview, which has been widely denounced by the legal community as baseless, according to the people familiar with the matter,” Status News reported this week. “They said Trump's allegations against the storied program are false and ripped his lawsuit as baseless. And they warned in no uncertain terms that if Paramount were to settle with Trump, it will stain the reputation of the company and undermine the First Amendment.”
In the end, though, that “letter didn’t move the needle at all,” a network insider told The Independent, adding that it “just shows that they have no oversight.”
With a settlement growing increasingly likely in recent weeks, Democratic lawmakers and journalism organizations have urged Paramount to reconsider, warning that failure to do so could lead to civil litigation, congressional hearings, and criminal probes over potential violations of anti-bribery laws.
“Even if Paramount directors and officers don't care about the harm to the First Amendment from settling, they need to think hard about whether it's worth the harm to themselves,” the Freedom of the Press Foundation tweeted on Monday. “Is securing Shari Redstone's windfall worth getting sued or investigated?”
In fact, Paramount board members had recently weighed concerns over the possibility of facing legal action due to allegations of extortion and bribery, specifically because of the perception that settling with the president would secure the Skydance merger. The Freedom of the Press Foundation, meanwhile, has recently enlisted prominent litigators Abbe Lowell and Norm Eisen in anticipation of filing a complaint against Paramount in the event of a settlement.
“It will be remembered as one of the most shameful capitulations by the press to a president in history,” Stern said on Wednesday. “We’ve already filed a shareholder information demand and are sending a second demand today to uncover information about this decision.”
