Paramount has reached an agreement in principle to settle Donald Trump’s lawsuit against “60 Minutes,” including a $16 million payment that will not go directly to the president and a provision that the show will immediately release transcripts featuring presidential candidates immediately after airing.
The settlement does not include any statement from CBS or “60 Minutes” of “apology or regret.”
According to a statement from CBS’s parent company, Paramount, the terms were proposed by the mediator in the dispute. Paramount’s $16 million payment “includes plaintiffs’ fees and costs and, excluding fees and costs, will be allocated to the future presidential library.”
Trump will not receive any direct funds. The president will disclose all of his claims, including defamation claims.
“The settlement does not include a statement of apology or regret,” Paramount wrote. But the company did promise that “in the future, 60 Minutes will release transcripts of interviews with eligible U.S. presidential candidates after the interviews air, subject to redactions as required for legal or national security concerns.”
Trump sued CBS for $20 billion over an October 7 “60 Minutes” interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris, which he claimed caused him “mental anguish” after being tricked into making her look good.
He also alleged that his “false advertising and misrepresentation” withheld viewers’ attention from him and his social media platform Truth Social, resulting in a decrease in the value of Trump’s media and technology group and his other media holdings, and violating the Texas Trade Practices Act.
The complaint specifically sought Harris’s response to a question about whether Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was listening to the Biden administration, which was different in the final cut that aired compared to an earlier promo for “Face the Nation.”
CBS News maintained that Trump’s allegations of misleading editing were false, explaining that the promo shown on “Face the Nation” used a longer section of Harris’s response. It also submitted the transcript and camera footage of the interview to the FCC as part of the agency’s investigation into allegations of “news distortion.”
In a recent court filing, CBS lawyers criticized the lawsuit as “meritless” and said it was an attempt to “evade First Amendment principles of bedrock.” They added that Trump “has not plausibly alleged that he personally suffered” an injury with a commercial interest in reputation or sales, and that the interview and Harris’s promotion were “fully protected editorial speech.”
The resolution of the high-stakes legal battle comes as Paramount is set to hold its annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday morning.
The media giant is also awaiting FCC approval of its $8 billion merger with Media Skydance due to a necessary transfer of broadcast licenses, which executives said would close in the first half of 2025.
The first automatic 90-day extension of the agreement, which was triggered in April, is set to expire next week. If the second extension is triggered, the deadline would be pushed back to October 6th. Paramount and Skydance would have the option to terminate the agreement, which would not be subject to the contract’s $400 million separation fee.
Observers believe the settlement was the final hurdle to getting the merger across the finish line. Paramount and FCC Chairman Brendan Carr have previously said the lawsuit and settlement negotiations with Trump were unrelated to the agency’s review of the parachute agreement.
But Carr also warned that “all options remain on the table” in the agency’s ongoing investigation into alleged “news distortion” related to the Harris interview, including potentially revoking CBS’s broadcast license if the network is found to have violated the agency’s public interest standard.
The long-awaited deal comes as Paramount and CBS have faced pressure from both network members and federal lawmakers and the California State Senate not to do so.
Senators Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Ron Wyden and California Senate Democrats warned controlling shareholder Shari Redstone that a deal in exchange for regulatory approval could constitute a violation of federal anti-bribery laws.
California lawmakers have already launched an investigation into the matter, inviting former “60 Minutes” executive producer Bill Owens and former CBS News president Wendy McMahon to testify. Owens and McMahon resigned in part because of their opposition to settling the lawsuit, as well as what Owens viewed as corporate interference in the show’s editorial decision-making.
Paramount’s settlement comes after Disney previously paid $15 million to settle a defamation lawsuit Trump brought against ABC News and Star anchor George Stephanopoulos. Disney also paid $25 million to settle Trump’s lawsuit over his ban from Facebook and Instagram following the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack.
More to come…
