July 2 (UPI) — Paramount has reached a settlement with Donald Trump, who sued CBS News for $20 billion over the editing of a 60 Minutes interview with his Democratic opponent, Kamala Harris.
The move is expected to further raise concerns with press freedom and democracy advocates who have characterized Trump’s lawsuit as frivolous, a attack on the free press and unprecedented, while some Democrats have warned that it may violate bribery laws.
The announcement comes a day after both sides of the lawsuit asked the court to stay ongoing proceedings in the case “because the parties are engaged in good faith, advanced, settlement negotiations,” which the court agreed to on Tuesday.
On Tuesday night, Paramount said it agreed to pay $16 million, excluding legal fees, to Trump’s future presidential library to settle the lawsuit, The New York Times reported.
No apology was included in the settlement, Paramount said it agreed to release written transcripts of future 60 Minutes interviews with presidential candidates.
UPI has contacted Paramount for confirmation and comment.
60 Minutes is a program on CBS News, whose parent company is Paramount.
Trump filed the lawsuit against CBS News in October as he was running for president, taking issue with the editing of a 60 Minutes interview with Harris, which Trump described as being deceptively doctored.
The lawsuit focuses on an answer Harris gave to a question about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In a preview of the interview that ran on Oct. 5, Harris was edited giving one answer. Then during the 60 Minutes episode that aired the next night, she was seen giving another answer. A transcript of the entire interview later published by CBS News shows that both responses came from the same, longer answer that Harris gave to the question.
Trump and his legal team accused CBS News in the lawsuit of “substantial news distortion calculated to (a) confuse, deceive and mislead the public, and (b) attempt to tip the scales in favor of the Democratic Party.”
While many in the legal community believed that Trump’s lawsuit would fail, as nothing factually incorrect was reported during the interview, it came as Paramount was seeking a multibillion-dollar merger with Skydance Media and the deal has been pending review by the Federal Communications Commission.
In May, amid speculation that Paramount was seeking to settle with Trump, Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, and Ron Wyden of Oregon, along with independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, sent Shari Redstone, chairwoman of Paramount, a letter warning her that under the federal bribery statute, it is illegal to corruptly give anything of value to public officials to influence their official acts.
“Because the merger will involve the transfer of ownership of CBS broadcast licenses, the Trump administration’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC) must review the deal and has an opportunity to block it. Paramount appears to be attempting to appease the administration in order to secure merger approval,” the senators said.
“Paramount’s apparent capitulation to President Trump is a sharp contrast from its earlier position that it would ‘vigorously defend’ against the lawsuit.”
Ahead of Paramount’s announcement, the Freedom of the Press Foundation issued a petition urging CBS to not settle.
“Freedom of the Press Foundation has announced plans to file a shareholder derivative suit against Paramount’s directors and officers if they settle,” it said.
Trump is known as litigious, bringing lawsuits against those he feels have done him wrong, including news organizations.
In December, ABC News agreed to pay Trump $15 million in a defamation suit against the network after George Stephanopoulos repeatedly said in an interview that Trump was found “liable for rape” when a jury had found the president liable for sexual abuse.
He has also filed a $49 million lawsuit against journalist Bob Woodward over allegedly unauthorized use of audio recordings.
