Paramount Global said it might pay $16 million to President Donald Trump to settle a lawsuit tied to “60 Minutes,” betting that the payment will help the corporate’s fortunes and speed a planned cope with Skydance Media even when it risks tarnishing considered one of the media giant’s most storied brands.
Paramount said in a press release early Wednesday evening that it had agreed to pay $16 million to President Trump to settle his lawsuit accusing CBS‘s “60 Minutes” of deceptively editing an interview with Kamala Harris and misleading U.S. voters, regardless that each the corporate and legal experts had said that Trump’s position within the matter was weak.
At issue within the matter was a “60 Minutes” interview between correspondent Bill Whitaker and former Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, presented on CBS in the times leading into the 2024 election. Trump allegations, filed in federal court within the Northern District of Texas in November, claimed that “60 Minutes” tried to mislead voters by airing two different edits of remarks made within the interview with Harris, then Trump’s rival for the White House. CBS has sought to have the case thrown out. The Federal Communications Commission subsequently opened an investigation into the matter, and CBS and Trump attorneys engaged a mediator. Paramount has scheduled its annual corporate meeting with investors for Wednesday, where it is anticipated to elect recent directors.
The corporate’s handling of the matter sparked anger and dismay at CBS News. Top producers at “60 Minutes” felt Paramount overseers, including controlling shareholder Shari Redstone, had begun inserting themselves into the show’s editing process and story selection, even asking news leaders if certain stories tied to evaluation of Trump’s recent policies needed to run. Bill Owens, just the third executive producer of the venerable newsmagazine, announced he would depart the show in April, and the CBS executive who supervised its national news division and native stations, Wendy McMahon, exited in May.
In keeping with Paramount, the settlement “doesn’t include a press release of apology or regret,” and that call may help the corporate navigate what are more likely to be bad reactions from its news personnel. CBS News staffers, producers and correspondents at “60 Minutes” have made clear that the considered the show offering an apology for conducting an interview with Harris at a key moment can be anathema to anyone in journalism. Trump turned down the chance to participate in an interview with the show ahead of the election.
None of the cash shall be “paid directly or not directly to President Trump,” but will as a substitute go toward his presidential library. The corporate also agreed that its venerable newsmagazine would, in the long run, release transcripts of interviews with eligible U.S. presidential candidates after such interviews have aired, “subject to redactions as required for legal or national security concerns.”
Trump’s legal team said in a press release that Paramount Global and CBS “realized the strength of this historic case and had no selection but to settle.”
Other sizable media corporations have kowtowed to Trump in a bid to make legal pressures vanish. Disney late last yr agreed to pay a settlement of $15 million to Donald Trump’s presidential library after anchor George Stephanopoulos asserted incorrectly in March of 2024 on air that Trump had been found liable in a court case for raping author E. Jean Carroll.
The settlement could embolden Trump to interact in further litigation against media corporations whose coverage he dislikes. Last week, a Trump lawyer threatened to sue the Recent York Times and CNN over their reports concerning the Pentagon’s early assessment that the U.S. bombings of Iranian nuclear sites set back the country’s nuclear weapons program by “a number of months,” whereas Trump has claimed Iran’s facilities were “totally obliterated.”
In a 3rd case wherein Trump is targeting a news outlet, the president on Monday (June 30) refiled a lawsuit against the Des Moines Register and pollster Ann Selzer in Iowa state court and concurrently dropped his federal suit. Trump alleges that the newspaper’s poll showing him trailing Harris by three points in Iowa (a state he won by 13 points) represents consumer fraud. A rep for the Des Moines Register said the paper “will proceed to withstand President Trump’s litigation gamesmanship and believes that whatever the forum it should achieve success in defending its rights under the First Amendment.”
In May, three left-wing U.S. senators — Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Ron Wyden — had warned that a settlement payment by Paramount to the president can be tantamount to an illegal bribe. Nevertheless it is inconceivable that the Trump administration’s Justice Department would pursue such a bribery charge.
Trump filed the lawsuit just days before the 2024 presidential election, alleging CBS’s “60 Minutes” interview with Harris had violated a Texas consumer protection law by misleading voters. His suit initially asked for $10 billion in damages. In February, the president amended the grievance to hunt not less than $20 billion. Trump has claimed the edit made Harris appear “more presidential” and asserted that it’s “the most important Broadcasting SCANDAL in History!!!”
Prior to the settlement, Paramount and CBS argued that they did nothing incorrect. In a March 2025 motion to dismiss Trump’s suit, Paramount called the legal motion “an affront to the First Amendment” that’s “without basis in law or fact.” The corporate reiterated that position in a June 23 reply to Trump’s motion to disclaim Paramount’s move to dismiss the grievance. CBS News has maintained that the “60 Minutes” broadcast and promotion of the Harris interview was “not doctored or deceitful.”
In a May 28 filing opposing Paramount’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit, Trump’s lawyers claimed that the “60 Minutes” editing of the Harris interview “led to widespread confusion and mental anguish of consumers,” including Trump and his co-plaintiff, Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas). CBS’s “conduct, including news distortion, constituted business speech which cannot by any reasonable interpretation be found to have constituted editorial judgment, and that speech damaged Plaintiffs,” the filing said. “The indisputable fact that such business speech was issued by a news organization doesn’t insulate Defendants from liability under the First Amendment.” Paramount and CBS said Trump had provided no evidence the “60 Minutes” content represented “business speech.”
The $8 billion Paramount-Skydance deal is currently pending FCC approval. Under the deal, announced in July 2024 after months of on-again-off-again talks, Skydance, Larry Ellison (father of Skydance CEO David Ellison) and RedBird Capital will buy the shares of Redstone’s NAI (which owns 77% of the voting power in Paramount Global) upon which Skydance will merge with Paramount to turn into “Paramount Skydance Corp.” Redstone is about to receive $1.75 billion in money upon closing of the Skydance deal.
Trump-appointed FCC chairman Brendan Carr has maintained the agency’s approval of Paramount-Skydance will not be connected to the president’s “60 Minutes” lawsuit. Last November, he said in a Fox News interview that a conservative group’s “news distortion” grievance against CBS over the “60 Minutes” Harris interview was “more likely to arise within the context of the FCC review of [the Paramount-Skydance] transaction.” Paramount Global had previously said Trump’s lawsuit “is totally separate from, and unrelated to, the Skydance transaction and the FCC approval process.”
On June 18 on the White House, Trump did indirectly answer a reporter’s query about what’s holding up approval of the Skydance-Paramount deal. However the president immediately began discussing his “60 Minutes” lawsuit, after saying that Skydance CEO David Ellison will “do a terrific job” as head of the merged Skydance-Paramount Global.
Trump’s lawsuit caused significant turmoil inside CBS News and parent company Paramount. On May 19, CBS News president Wendy McMahon announced her resignation, writing in a memo to staff “It’s turn into clear that the corporate and I don’t agree on the trail forward.” That got here lower than a month after “60 Minutes” executive producer Bill Owens quit, also citing conflicts with Paramount execs. The departures of McMahon and Owens have been widely viewed as stemming from Paramount executives — on the direction of Redstone — more closely monitoring CBS News operations amid the legal battle with Trump.
In February, Redstone had asked Paramount’s board to resolve the Trump lawsuit, including by exploring the opportunity of mediation, Variety has reported. Redstone recused herself from the board’s discussions a few settlement with Trump.
Trump, on his Truth Social social media account in April, said his lawsuit against CBS was “a real WINNER” and falsely claimed that Paramount, CBS and “60 Minutes” admitted to committing “this crime” of deceptively editing Harris’ answer. Trump alleged “60 Minutes” edited the interview to eliminate her “bad and incompetent” response to an issue about whether Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “listening to the Biden-Harris administration.” Trump asserted the version of the “60 Minutes” interview that aired “cheated and defrauded the American People at levels never seen before within the Political Arena.”
In response to an FCC request, CBS News made public an unedited transcript of the “60 Minutes” interview with Harris that aired Oct. 6, 2024 (available at this link) and said the materials showed that “consistent with 60 Minutes’ repeated assurances to the general public,” the published “was not doctored or deceitful.”
The Trump lawsuit’s claims centered on an exchange wherein “60 Minutes” correspondent Bill Whitaker asked Harris concerning the Biden administration’s relations with Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu. CBS News bulletin an extended portion of Harris’s response on Oct. 6 on “Face the Nation,” whereas the edited “60 Minutes” segment broadcast the following day included a shorter excerpt from the identical answer. “Each excerpt reflects the substance of the vp’s answer,” CBS News had said in a press release.
Below is the unedited portion of the “60 Minutes” exchange, as released by CBS, that Trump’s lawsuit takes issue with. Through the interview, Whitaker asked Harris, “Does the U.S. don’t have any sway over [Israeli] Prime Minister Netanyahu?” after which asked this follow-up query:
WHITAKER: But plainly Prime Minister Netanyahu will not be listening. “The Wall Street Journal” said that he — that your administration has repeatedly been blindsided by Netanyahu, and actually, he has rebuffed nearly your entire administration’s entreaties.
HARRIS: Well, Bill, the work that we’ve got done has resulted in a lot of movements in that region by Israel that were very much prompted by, or a results of many things, including our advocacy for what must occur within the region. And we’re not going to stop doing that. We are usually not going to stop pursuing what’s obligatory for the US to be clear about where we stand on the necessity for this war to finish.
On the Oct. 6 edition of “Face the Nation,” that exchange was edited to this:
WHITAKER: But plainly Prime Minister Netanyahu will not be listening.
HARRIS: Well, Bill, the work that we’ve got done has resulted in a lot of movements in that region by Israel that were very much prompted by, or a results of, many things, including our advocacy for what must occur within the region.
On the “60 Minutes” segment that aired Oct. 7, the interaction was edited to this:
Whitaker: But plainly Prime Minister Netanyahu will not be listening.
Harris: We are usually not going to stop pursuing what’s obligatory for the US to be clear about where we stand on the necessity for this war to finish.