Sources familiar with the talks say that representatives of Paramount are in discussions with President Donald Trump about settling a $10 billion lawsuit filed by him against CBS days before the 2016 election, accusing the network of deceptive editing during a “60 Minutes'” interview with the then Vice President Kamala Harris.
The New York Times reports that with Trump as president, settling this lawsuit could lower the chances of the administration blocking or delaying Paramount’s plans to merge the entertainment company Skydance into a multi-billion dollar merger.
Paramount must get approval from the Federal Communications Commission (now led by Trump’s appointee Brendan Carr) to complete its merger.
Paramount also expects that the FCC will request that CBS News provide an unedited transcript from the Harris interview. The network has rejected calls from Trump’s attorneys to release the documents.
Carr said the commission would likely review the Harris interview when reviewing the Paramount merger.
Shari Redstone, Paramount’s controlling shareholder, stands to gain billions from the sale of Skydance to Larry Ellison’s billionaire son David.
People familiar with the internal discussions say that if Paramount settles with the president, this would be a rare agreement between a U.S. company and a sitting president. It is also expected to cause problems for CBS News and 60 Minutes which are concerned about settling litigation and caving into political complaints about their editorial judgement.
In recent weeks, Trump has settled with two other major companies.
ABC News spent $15 million last month to settle Trump’s lawsuit for defamation against the network, and its anchor George Stephanopoulos.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, announced on Wednesday that it had agreed to a settlement amounting to $25 million in a lawsuit Trump brought after social media networks banned his accounts in the year 2021.
Edward Paltzik, Trump’s attorney, said in a Thursday statement that CBS News and Paramount would “really account for” the damage done to Trump.
A settlement would also discourage “fake news” from distorting facts to promote a partisan agenda. Paltzik stated that President Trump is looking forward to a fair conclusion to this case.
Trump’s team accused “60 Minutes” of selectively editing the Harris interview. In a preview of the interview airing on CBS News’ Sunday morning show, “Face the Nation,” Harris was shown giving a different answer to a question than the one she was shown giving in the interview as shown on “60 Minutes.”
The Trump campaign claimed that the program had chosen a quote more in line with the Democrat candidate for prime time to promote her candidacy.
CBS News replied that Harris had given a long answer to the query and stated the network adhered to standard practices in airing another part of the response during the prime time show due to time constraints.
The network insisted the interview was not doctored, and Trump’s suit was “completely without any merit.”
CBS lawyers say that Trump’s suit is based on a faulty interpretation of Texas law, which prohibits deceptive business practices.