Paramount Global is moving to dismiss President Donald Trump’s $20 billion lawsuit against CBS for editing the 60 Minutes pre-election interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris to allegedly make her look more favorable.
The media and entertainment conglomerate filed two motions to dismiss the case on Thursday, arguing the lawsuit is “an affront to the First Amendment” and is not based “in law or fact.”
“If the First Amendment means anything, it means that public officials like Plaintiffs cannot hold news organizations like CBS liable for the simple exercise of editorial judgment,” one of the motions states. “Whether Plaintiffs believe the entire unedited Interview should have aired or only edited in a way they approve, they are not entitled under the First Amendment to demand only news that fits their wishes.”
Beyond the argument that the lawsuit amounts to an unconstitutional threat to free speech, Paramount says the case lacks jurisdiction.
The suit was filed in Texas, where neither Paramount nor CBS are based. The 60 Minutes interview in question also had no affiliation with the state.
When Trump first filed the lawsuit five days before the election, his lawyers argued the news program violated Texas consumer fraud law by deceptively editing the interview with Harris. Trump’s legal team amended the suit last month to include a legal claim of “unfair competition” under the federal Lanham Act.
The amended lawsuit argues CBS harmed Trump by “false advertising” of the interview and by diverting traffic from Truth Social to the defendants’ media platforms, costing him and his business financial loss.
Paramount was added as a defendant because its Paramount+ streaming service platformed the 60 Minutes interview.
The litigation also added Representative Ronny Jackson (R., Texas) as a plaintiff, claiming the lawmaker sustained unspecified “substantial damages” on the Texas consumer fraud claim. The suit was filed in Amarillo, Texas, where a Trump-appointed judge presides. The damages initially totaled $10 billion.
Paramount’s motions come a month after 60 Minutes published the raw transcript and video of the interview in conjunction with the Federal Communications Commission after the agency requested the materials in response to a “news distortion” complaint filed by the Center for American Rights. The hourlong CBS news program had declined to release the materials before the FCC intervened.
At issue in the pre-election interview is a moment in which Harris answers a question from 60 Minutes correspondent Bill Whitaker, who suggested that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not listening to the Biden administration during Israel’s war with Hamas.
“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,” Harris responded.
This part was revealed in a preview clip on CBS’s Face the Nation the day before the primetime special. When the interview aired, however, her response was cut in half.
“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,” Harris said in the heavily edited election special.
After noticing the actual interview excluded the first half of her answer, conservatives mocked Harris for offering a “word salad.”
Citing similar instances of her lengthy, incoherent answers, Trump’s attorneys amended the lawsuit after reviewing the entire unedited transcript. They argued CBS engaged in “partisan and unlawful acts of election and voter interference through malicious, deceptive, and substantial news distortion.”
Meanwhile, 60 Minutes maintained it did nothing wrong.
“In reporting the news, journalists regularly edit interviews – for time, space or clarity,” the news program explained. “In making these edits, 60 Minutes is always guided by the truth and what we believe will be most informative to the viewing public – all while working within the constraints of broadcast television.”
Underlying Paramount’s motions to dismiss the case is its desire to settle the high-stakes lawsuit with Trump in the hopes of preventing his appointed FCC chief, Brendan Carr, from halting the corporation’s proposed merger with Skydance Media. If both sides come to an agreement, Paramount would be the latest company behind ABC News, Meta, and X to settle with Trump.
As of now, the proposed merger is scheduled to close March 20. However, that date can be extended twice by 90 days if the FCC doesn’t approve the transaction. Unless the Trump administration intervenes in some way, Paramount expects the merger to close in the first half of the year.