Paramount Board Worried That CBS Paying Too Much to Trump Risked Shareholder Lawsuits Claiming 'Bribery': NYT

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: MEDIAite

Jul 2nd, 2025, 6:31 pm


The decision by Paramount Global, CBS’ parent company, to settle the lawsuit President Donald Trump filed against the network over a 6o Minutes interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris last October conflicted the company’s directors who worried refusal to settle would derail the planned merger with Skydance but settling for too much could increase the risk of a shareholder lawsuit and congressional investigations.

Trump has been complaining about Harris’s October interview with CBS’s long running Sunday evening program since it aired, filing a lawsuit right before the November election and then amending it to add additional claims and demand a whopping $20 billion in damages and adding Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-TX) as a plaintiff as part of a tenuous effort to support jurisdiction in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, a court favored by forum–shopping litigants like Trump and Elon Musk.

At the heart of Trump’s complaints about the Harris interview are his claims that a question asked by Bill Whitaker and an answer given by the Democratic presidential candidate were edited to change the appearance of her answer. This is not accurate. CBS released the full raw video footage and transcripts, insisting that the show’s broadcast “was not doctored or deceitful.” There were edits of the kind television programs frequently make to condense for time, but Trump’s accusation that they “changed” her answer simply is not true. His repeated rants that the interview somehow changed the results of last November’s election are nonsensical as well — he won that election.

CBS initially took a strongly defiant tone in two motions to dismiss filed in March that challenged both the Texas venue and the underlying cause of action in the lawsuit, denouncing the lawsuit as “an affront to the First Amendment and is without basis in law or fact.” As the months went on, however, rumors continued to swirl that Paramount and CBS were anxious to end the conflict with the president in order to pave the way for the Skydance merger, even if it meant coughing up a large amount of money.

Read more: https://www.mediaite.com/media/news/paramount-board-fretted-trump-settlement-could-spark-shareholder-lawsuit-congressional-investigations-report/