Paramount Global, the parent company of the CBS television network, agreed on Tuesday to settle President Donald Trump’s lawsuit for $16 million.
The lawsuit stems from a 2024 interview of then Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris on CBS’s popular news program 60 Minutes, which Trump alleged was deceptively edited. By making Harris appear more eloquent in the interview than she actually was, the lawsuit claimed, CBS’s editing choices amounted to “news distortion” and election interference.
The $16 million settlement by Paramount will go toward covering Trump’s legal fees and help fund his planned presidential library. No money will be paid to Trump directly, according to Paramount.
A spokesperson for the president’s legal team said that Trump delivered “another win for the American people” with this settlement, “as he, once again, holds the Fake News media accountable for their wrongdoing and deceit.” The spokesperson added, “CBS and Paramount Global realized the strength of this historic case and had no choice but to settle.”
Trump’s lawsuit, filed last October, initially sought damages of $10 billion from Paramount as well as an injunction against “CBS’s ongoing false, misleading, and deceptive acts.” In a subsequent amended complaint, Trump’s team doubled that demand to $20 billion. In response, CBS denied any wrongdoing and filed two motions in March to dismiss the amended filing.
The legal battle over the Harris interview has coincided with Paramount’s attempt to merge with Skydance Media in a deal valued at $8 billion. Because the merger would require the transfer of local broadcast rights, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), an independent regulatory agency of the executive branch, holds jurisdiction over whether to approve the deal. The FCC has typically ruled to approve such transactions involving broadcast licenses, especially under Republican administrations.
Under the Trump administration, however, the proposed merger between Paramount and Skydance has stalled as regulators have not yet issued a decision on whether to approve it. At the same time, FCC Chairman Brandon Carr, who was appointed by Trump in January to lead the agency, announced a probe of CBS’s flagship television station over the same 60 Minutes Harris interview at issue in Trump’s lawsuits. Claiming that the interview may have violated FCC rules against “news distortion,” the probe requested that the network provide unedited transcripts of the interview. CBS complied with this request.
As the FCC review and Trump’s lawsuit occurred simultaneously, press freedom advocates and Democratic lawmakers voiced alarm that any settlement by Paramount could be construed as a bribe that would clear the way for its merger to be approved.
Freedom of the Press Foundation, a non-profit First Amendment organization, has threatened to sue Paramount on behalf of its shareholders if the company decided to settle Trump’s lawsuit. The foundation also denounced the lawsuit against Paramount as a “clear First Amendment violation and threatens the basic press freedom rights of other news outlets.”