Paramount Global has settled its lawsuit with Donald Trump, with the company agreeing to pay the sitting president $16 million (USD).
The settlement, announced at close to midnight Tuesday (July 2) on the East Coast, clears a path for the media company’s long-delayed merger with Skydance Media. Paramount said the $16 million payment to Trump will go toward his presidential library and legal fees.
Fox Business pundit Charlie Gasparino tweeted Wednesday morning that the PSA commitments added an additional $14 million to the total payout, however, multiple sources familiar with the mediation process have said that there was no formal agreement for an extra payment for the PSAs.
“Contrary to some news reports or media speculation, Paramount’s settlement with President Trump does not include PSAs or anything related to PSAs,” the company said in a statement Wednesday. “Paramount has no knowledge of any promises or commitments made to President Trump other than those set forth in the settlement proposed by the mediator and accepted by the parties. The material terms of the settlement agreement in principle are those disclosed by us yesterday.”
In a court filing on Wednesday, attorneys for Trump and Paramount informed the judge of the settlement. “The parties are working diligently to prepare and execute a mutually agreeable final Compromise Settlement Agreement and Release, followed by Plaintiffs’ dismissal of the action with prejudice,” they said in the joint filing.
Under the agreement, Paramount will make a payment but does not have to make a formal apology for its handling of a 60 Minutes interview last fall. Trump sued CBS News and its parent company, Paramount, for $20 billion over the editing of the interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump’s opponent in the presidential election.
Paramount said in a statement that it agreed that 60 Minutes in the future will release transcripts of interviews with eligible U.S. presidential candidates after those interviews have aired. The release of transcripts will be “subject to redactions as required for legal or national security concerns,” the company said.
“This lawsuit is completely separate from, and unrelated to, the Skydance transaction and the FCC approval process,” the company said, reiterating its previous statement on the matter. “We will abide by the legal process to defend our case.”
The FCC review of the transaction had been held up by the suit, though agency chair Brendan Carr has insisted multiple times that the regulatory process and lawsuit are separate. Now, the review can proceed, including a “news distortion” complaint filed against CBS News in the 60 Minutes matter.
Lawmakers, regulatory experts and shareholders have indicated in recent weeks that Paramount controlling shareholder Shari Redstone and others involved in any settlement could be liable for bribery. They claim that a monetary settlement would essentially mean the deal participants are effectively paying the government for approval of the merger. Those theories, which have taken root in the context of similar Trump crusades against Disney, NBCUniversal and other media companies (some resulting in payouts to Trump), could well be tested in courts in the coming months.
Trump’s legal team said, “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. 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.” How they said that with a straight face we may never know.
The settlement figure is identical to the amount that Disney paid in December to settle a Trump defamation lawsuit against ABC News over comments that George Stephanopoulos made on This Week. Like Disney’s settlement, the Paramount sum will be made to Trump’s future presidential library and includes legal costs.
This case, though, was not a libel claim, but a consumer one.
At the heart of the case was one question asked during Bill Whitaker’s interview with Harris.
He asked her why Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not listening to the Biden administration.
Harris replied, “Well, Bill, the work that we have done has resulted in a number of movements in that region by Israel that were very much prompted by, or a result of many things, including our advocacy for what needs to happen in the region. And we’re not going to stop doing that. We are not going to stop pursuing what is necessary for the United States to be clear about where we stand on the need for this war to end.”
The second part of Harris’ answer was shown on the 60 Minutes broadcast on October 7. The first part was shown one day earlier, in a preview segment of Face the Nation. That edit was confirmed when 60 Minutes released the transcript and video of the complete interview in February.
Trump’s lawsuit, filed in October, initially claimed that the network deceptively edited the interview to make Harris look better in advance of the election. The lawsuit claimed a violation of Texas’ Deceptive Trade Practices Act, a consumer law typically invoked in false advertising claims.
After he won the election, and CBS’ legal team argued that his claim was moot, Trump filed a revised lawsuit that claimed that he was harmed because the interview unfairly diverted traffic from his own media properties, including the ironically titled Truth Social.
Many legal observers said that Trump’s claim was meritless, a shakedown as he held the levers of power. The sum that Trump was seeking exceeded the value of Paramount-Skydance and of all money spent in the 2024 election cycle. In legal filings, CBS’ team also said they had broad First Amendment protection for a news broadcast and news judgment, while they challenged the president’s choice of venue for the case — a federal court division in Amarillo, TX where the sole judge, Matthew Kacsmaryk, is a Trump appointee who has given favorable rulings on a number of case from those on the right. Trump’s team had claimed that the Face the Nation preview amounted to an advertisement. They also contended that the president suffered “mental anguish” from the segment, even though he had declined to participate in the 60 Minutes broadcast.
Within CBS News, there has been months of consternation over a pending settlement, along with some second guessing over the way that it has all been handled. Some staffers say that 60 Minutes should have released the interview transcript much earlier, potentially nipping it in the bud. As the 60 Minutes lawsuit hung over the merger, Bill Owens, the executive producer of 60 Minutes, resigned, saying he was no longer allowed to make “independent decisions” about the show. Several weeks later, Wendy McMahon, president and CEO of CBS News and Stations, also was out. McMahon, who had defended 60 Minutes, said it was “clear that the company and I do not agree on the path forward.”
Scott Pelley, correspondent for 60 Minutes, warned last month that a settlement and an apology could be “very damaging” to the reputation of CBS and Paramount. “I think many of the law firms that made deals with the White House are at this very moment regretting it. That doesn’t look like their finest hour,” Pelley told CNN’s Anderson Cooper, a fellow correspondent on 60 Minutes. Pelley was referring to law firms that reached agreements with Trump after he sought to cut them off from access to government facilities and restricted their work with contractors.
Following the news of the settlement, one CBS News staffer said, “People are not surprised but disappointed. There is hope that if the Skydance deal goes through, that can be a fresh start.”
The Paramount-Skydance deal was formally proposed nearly a year ago, following a months-long period when Redstone evaluated a range of potential suitors. At various times, Sony Pictures (in tandem with private equity firm Apollo), Barry Diller and Byron Allen expressed interest, and an investor group led by Edgar Bronfman Jr. also put in a bid during the 45-day “go-shop” period last summer. By and large, though, Skydance had the inside track given its longtime relationship with Paramount Pictures as a co-finance partner. Unlike some buyers, who were said to be ready to dismantle the company’s asset portfolio and potentially unload the fabled Melrose studio lot, Skydance and its CEO, David Ellison, are seen as the most film-friendly buyers of the bunch.
Surprisingly, though, given the close ties between the merger participants, the lack of overlap in the companies’ assets and the bullish outlook for Merger & Acquisition (M&A) deals at the beginning of 2025, the closing process has been an agonizingly protracted one. Paramount and Skydance had maintained the deal would be wrapped up during the first half of 2025 and already had to exercise their option for a 90-day extension of the contractual merger deadline.
The main culprit in the delay was the Trump suit. As the case wound through the legal and mediation process, the FCC’s approval of the deal remained the lone hurdle. Because Paramount is a controlled company, the merger does not require shareholder approval, though the company’s annual shareholder meeting will take place Wednesday morning.
Meanwhile, Trump’s efforts to use the power of his office against the media are not over. In recent days, he and his allies have threatened investigations and even prosecutions of CNN, including for its reporting on a leaked preliminary intelligence report on the U.S. strikes on Iran, and for its story on a crowdsourced app that allows users to report spottings of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents within a five-mile radius.
More from Deadline:
Paramount Global Blasted For Settling Donald Trump’s ‘60 Minutes’ Lawsuit: “Threatens Journalists’ Ability To Do Their Job,” WGAE Says
UPDATED, with FCC commissioner’s comment, Paramount comment: Paramount Global is already facing sharp criticism over its decision to settle Donald Trump‘s lawsuit over the way that CBS’ 60 Minutes edited an interview with Kamala Harris.
The $16 million settlement, announced late on Tuesday, came after months of wrangling and protest within CBS News. The lawsuit was seen by many legal observers as meritless, but Paramount Global needs Trump administration approval for its merger with Skydance Media.
Anna Gomez, the sole Democrat on the FCC, said in a statement that the settlement “should alarm anyone who values a free and independent press.” She said that “instead of standing on principle, Paramount opted for a payout. That decision now casts a long shadow over the integrity of the transaction pending before the FCC. Given the extraordinary public interest in this deal, the novel legal questions raised by the lawsuit and its resolution, and the repeated calls from lawmakers for transparency, I once again urge the FCC to bring this matter before the full Commission for a vote. Approving this transaction behind closed doors and under the cover of bureaucratic process would be a shameful outcome that denies the American people the transparency and accountability they deserve, especially when press freedom is at stake.”
The Writers Guild of America East, which represents writers at 60 Minutes and elsewhere in the news division, said that they stand “behind the exemplary work of our members at 60 Minutes and CBS News. We wish their bosses at Paramount Global had the 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.”
A spokesperson for Paramount Global said, “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. Settlement offers a negotiated resolution that allows companies to focus on their core objectives rather than being mired in uncertainty and distraction.”
In December, The Walt Disney Co. settled a defamation lawsuit filed by Trump for an identical amount. But there is concern that companies are not standing up to the president at a critical moment.
Ruth Ben-Ghiant, the author who writes about authoritarianism and propaganda, wrote on X, “Had they consulted with someone, anyone, who knows about authoritarian shakedown tactics and Mafia states, they would have learned that by paying out they have confirmed their weakness in the eyes of the predator.”
Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, said in a statement that Paramount’s legal exposure in the “frivolous” lawsuit was “negligible.” “Paramount should have fought this extortionate lawsuit in court, and it would have prevailed. Now Trump’s presidential library will be a permanent monument to Paramount’s surrender, a continual reminder of its failure to defend freedoms that are essential to our democracy.”
Robert Corn-Revere, chief counsel for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, said in a statement that a “cold wind just blew through every newsroom this morning. Paramount may have closed this case, but it opened the door to the idea that the government should be the media’s editor-in-chief.”
He said that Trump has a long history of “frivolous” lawsuits against media entities, but this time had the FCC review of the Paramount-Skydance merger “to bring added pressure to bear.”
“Behavior that gets rewarded gets repeated,” Corn-Revere said. “This settlement will only embolden the president to continue his flurry of baseless lawsuits against the press — and against the American people’s ability to hear the news free from government intrusion.”
Trump just this week has threatened a lawsuit, and even prosecution, against CNN for its reporting on an early intelligence report that cast doubt on the extent to which U.S. strikes on Iran “obliterated” their nuclear program. Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem also said that the Justice Department was reviewing potential prosecution of the network for reporting on a crowdsourced app that tracks sightings of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
One organization, the Freedom of the Press Foundation, said in May that it planned to file a shareholder derivative lawsuit against the company if there was a settlement. Seth Stern, director of advocacy for the organization said that they filed a shareholder demand for books and records of the settlement decision, including corporate discussion of the risks, benefits and drawbacks. They planned to send a second letter on Wednesday, and consider legal options.
“Each time a company cowers and surrenders to Trump’s demands, it only emboldens him to do it again,” Stern said. “It will be remembered as one of the most shameful capitulations by the press to a president in history.”
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From Deadline:
Paramount Global’s George Cheeks Defends CBS Settlement With Donald Trump — Better Than “Being Mired In Uncertainty And Distraction”
The morning after Paramount Global agreed to a $16 million payout to settle Donald Trump‘s lawsuit against CBS and 60 Minutes, co-CEO George Cheeks stepped up to defend the move at the company’s annual shareholder meeting.
In a brief Q&A, one stockholder asked what drove the company’s decision to settle.
“Yes, the company has agreed in principle to settle the lawsuit, and as reported, it does not include an apology,” said Cheeks. “Now as to the why? Look, companies often settle litigation to avoid the high and somewhat unpredictable cost of legal defense, the risk of an adverse judgment that could result in significant financial as well as reputational damage and the disruption to business operations that prolonged legal battles can cause,” he added.
The settlement “offers a negotiated resolution that allows companies to focus on their core objectives rather than being mired in uncertainty and distraction, and we issued a statement last night that reflects the agreed terms.”
Trump sued CBS News and its parent company, Paramount, for $20 billion over the editing of the interview last fall with former Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump’s opponent in the presidential election.
The announcement by Paramount late Tuesday said it had reached an agreement in principle to resolve the lawsuit filed by President Trump in the Northern District of Texas and a threatened defamation action concerning a separate 60 Minutes report.
Under the terms of the settlement, which were proposed by a mediator, Paramount’s $16 million total payout includes plaintiffs’ fees and costs with the rest being allocated to Trump’s future presidential library. It releases of all claims regarding any CBS reporting through the date of the settlement, including the Texas action and the threatened defamation action.
The company stressed that “no amount will be paid directly or indirectly to President Trump” and, as Cheeks mentioned this morning, the settlement does not include a statement of apology or regret.
Paramount did agree, however, that in the future, 60 Minutes will release transcripts of interviews with eligible U.S. presidential candidates after they have aired subject to redactions as required for legal or national security concerns.
The company also reiterated its previous statement on its proposed sale to Skydance, currently under review by the FCC. “This lawsuit is completely separate from, and unrelated to, the Skydance transaction and the FCC approval process. We will abide by the legal process to defend our case.”
FCC chair Brendan Carr, a Trump loyalist whom the president named to head the commission, has also tried somewhat to separate the two in public statements but it’s widely believed that that a greenlight would be unlikely without a settlement first.
Shari Redstone-controlled Paramount and David Ellison‘s Skydance announced their planned merger a year ago after months of bumpy negotiations. Paramount had said it expected to close the deal in the first half of 2025. That’s just slipped by but the settlement appears to create a path forward for approval although the timeframe isn’t clear.
Paramount’s payout is identical to what Disney paid in December to close out a Trump defamation lawsuit against ABC News over comments that George Stephanopoulos made on This Week. Disney’s coin will also flow to Trump’s future presidential library as well as his legal costs.
The Writers Guild of America East slammed the settlement today as 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.”
More expressions of disgust are expected to flow although it’s not clear if legal action will follow. Some public interest groups and politicians have warned of lawsuits against Paramount for breaking anti-bribery statutes if it settles with the proposed merger awaiting the FCC’s blessing.
Otherwise, give the underlying drama, Paramount’s virtual annual meeting was short and unventful at under 30 minutes, kicking off with the de rigueur film and TV montage led by Mission: Impossible takes and Tom Cruise. The co-CEO’s — Chris McCarthy and Brian Robbins alongside Cheeks — briefly touted progress in their respective divisions over the past year and across the company on hit shows, a streaming turnaround and hefty cost cuts, before taking just a few questions.
Shareholders appeared to elect all of the company’s director nominees despite recommendations against four — including Redstone — by leading proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services. The exact vote tally will be released later.
Stockholders also declined to approve a shareholder resolution by conservative think tank The National Center for Public Policy Research asking Paramount to issue a report on “the potential risks associated with omitting ‘viewpoint’ and ‘ideology’ from its written equal employment opportunity (EEO) policy.”
###
From Deadline:
Staffers At CBS News React With Dismay — But Not Surprise — At Paramount Settlement Of Donald Trump’s ‘60 Minutes’ Lawsuit
The news that Paramount Global will settle Donald Trump‘s 60 Minutes lawsuit for $16 million certainly did not come as a shock to staffers at CBS News.
For months, there has been a great deal of consternation and even resignation at the prospect of a settlement and the impact that it would have on the news division.
“People are not surprised but also disappointed,” one CBS News staffer said on Wednesday. “There is hope that if the Skydance deal goes through, that could be a fresh start.”
CBS News President Tom Cibrowski, in the morning editorial call, noted that the settlement did not include an apology, while urging his team to move forward, per a source. In its announcement of the settlement, Paramount Global also emphasized that there was no apology, as did CBS President and CEO George Cheeks.
Over the past few months, CBS News staffers have had a great deal of consternation over a pending settlement, a prospect that was out of their control. Talks were occurring at the corporate level and having much to do with the circumstances of the pending Paramount Global merger with Skydance Media. Some staffers also have seen the whole affair as obscuring standout work in the news division, particularly in the early months of the Trump administration.
In the aftermath, a succession of press freedom groups and other organizations have blasted Paramount Global’s decision. Trump sued the network over an Oct. 7 60 Minutes interview with his 2024 rival Kamala Harris, claiming that it was intentionally edited to make her look better and boost her electoral chances. CBS News called the lawsuit meritless, and said that there was no deception, and released the transcript in February.
The network published a story about the settlement early Wednesday morning, quoting legal experts who saw the lawsuit as frivolous. Trump claimed a violation of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, typically used in false advertising and product claims.
They included Geoffrey R. Stone, law professor at the University of Chicago, who told the network, “That statute is about sales — a salesperson can be held liable for stating that a product has certain positive effects when he knows it doesn’t. But CBS is not engaged in advertising here.”
Within CBS News, there has been some second guessing about how the whole situation could have been handled differently, including that 60 Minutes could have released the transcript of the interview with Kamala Harris much earlier, as some other news organizations routinely do.
The settlement did include an agreement that in the future, 60 Minutes “will 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.”
As some staffers look to get beyond the whole affair, the legal and corporate aspects are not actually over. A conservative group, the Center for American Rights, filed an FCC complaint over the 60 Minutes broadcast under the agency’s news distortion policy. But that has been rarely invoked in the past and under the narrowest of circumstances, while First Amendment attorneys say that the network would have a strong case should it ever come to a fine or other sanction.
There is also the merger itself. The FCC passed an informal, 180-day timeline to review the deal, and Chairman Brendan Carr, a Trump appointee, has not said when a decision will be rendered. His spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment.
Unclear is what the ultimate impact that the settlement will have on CBS News, whether that be reputation or ratings. Bill Owens, the executive producer of 60 Minutes, exited the network in April, he said that he no longer make independent decisions about the show. The newsmagazine is consistently a top ratings getter for the network, drawing an average of 8.32 million viewers in its 57th season. As the wrangling over the Skydance-Paramount merger dragged on, the show did a number of hard-hitting pieces on the Trump administration, to the point where the president threatened to file another lawsuit. That potential defamation action also was part of the settlement agreement, per Paramount Global.
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