Donald Trump and Paramount don’t have a deal but to settle POTUS’ months previous $20 billion 60 Minutes lawsuit, however the Shari Redstone dominated media firm has put some critical hundreds of thousands on the desk within the hopes to make this roadblock to a merger with Skydance disappear.
“It’s very early days,” a supply near talks between Trump’s attorneys and Paramount’s attorneys and execs tells Deadline. “A gap provide has been made, however extra negotiations are underway,” the supply confirmed, however wouldn’t go into specifics past saying “proper now, it’s an eight-figure dialogue.”
Within the waning days of final yr’s bitter election, Trump went after very long time foil CBS over the way in which that 60 Minutes had edited a large ranging interview with Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.
Asking for a headline grabbing $20 billion, the Hail Mary motion alleged violations of Texas’ Misleading Commerce Practices Act, which is usually utilized by customers for false promoting claims.
Earlier at this time, The Wall Road Journal reported that Paramount has supplied $15 million, however Trump’s workforce wished $25 million and an apology from CBS Information. When requested by Deadline if the $15 million quantity that the WSJ reported at this time plus Trump’s workforce rejection and risk of a brand new swimsuit was correct, one other particular person with data of the mediation replied, “sounds about proper, as the place issues are at.”
A rep for Paramount declined to touch upon the state of the bargaining or the WSJ story Wednesday on the sums being mentioned President Trump’s authorized workforce and the White Home didn’t reply to Deadline’s request for remark.
Since first submitting his 60 Minutes swimsuit in October 2024, Trump handily beat the then-VP Harris and returned to the White Home.
Even earlier than his second inauguration as tech overlords, moguls and CEOs started to bend the knee, Trump secured a $15 million and extra payout from Disney over a March 2024 version of ABC’s This Week the place George Stephanopoulos stated that “juries have discovered” Trump “chargeable for rape.”
Parsing the authorized distinction, Trump was truly discovered liable early final yr by a civil jury for sexually abusing and defaming author E. Jean Carroll – an consequence the previous and present POTUS has always ridiculed. In addition to handing Trump a win and a few money, the Bob Iger-run media big’s decision of then candidate’s defamation swimsuit set the tone for Trump 2.0, whilst corporations and executives which have sought to curry favor discovered themselves simply as rapidly again within the firing line.
Opening promising to go after his enemies actual and imagined, Trump rapidly launched a Undertaking 2025 fueled purging of the federal authorities (with the assistance of his prime backer Elon Musk) and instituted extra Viktor Orbán impressed assaults on the media. To that, the prospect of a settlement in Trump’s 60 Minutes swimsuit has rattled CBS Information and the acclaimed newsmagazine sequence specifically, as leaders have been proof against such a transfer.
Invoice Owens, the manager producer of 60 Minutes, resigned final month, saying that he might not get the independence that the present has lengthy loved from the mother or father company. Wendy McMahon, the president and CEO of CBS Information and Stations, earlier this month introduced her departure. She was a defender of the information division amid considerations over the settlement. Even because the likes of Sen. Bernie Sanders warned Redstone that any cope with Trump might represent a violation of federal bribery legal guidelines, some CBS Information staffers took McMahon’s exit as an indication {that a} settlement might be imminent.
They is likely to be right, no less than from what we’re listening to at this time and the thrust of the WSJ piece.
Nonetheless, even in that context, Trump’s 60 Minutes lawsuit is extensively seen as meritless. But, the litigation comes as CBS’ mother or father firm Paramount International and majority shareholder Redstone are determined for the administration to grant regulatory approval for its multi-billion greenback merger with Skydance.
(L-R) Shari Redstone and David Ellison
Getty Photos
The David Ellison-led Skydance, with a little bit assist from patriarch Larry Ellison, and backer RedBird Capital agreed in July to accumulate Paramount International with an $8 billion funding, capping a bumpy seven-month courtship. However the drama continued because the deal requires approval by the FCC, at the moment headed by Chair Brendan Carr, personally promoted by Trump. It’s been sluggish going and the would-be companions noticed a 90-day extension set off in April.
Defying what anybody with realpolitick eyes can plainly see, Carr has insisted that the president’s lawsuit towards CBS is a completely separate monitor from the merger consideration.
Over the weekend, a graduation speech from 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley just a few weeks in the past went viral and drew sturdy and rapid scorn from MAGA media Talking to Wake Forest College graduates, Pelley stated that “our sacred rule of legislation is beneath assault. Journalism is beneath assault. Universities are beneath assault. Freedom of speech is beneath assault. An insidious worry is reaching by way of our colleges, our companies, our houses and into our personal ideas. The worry to talk. In America?”
As for that looming risk of Trump launching a brand new lawsuit towards CBS and maybe Paramount, that is what POTUS’ legal professional, Ed Paltzik, stated final week:
“Throughout ongoing settlement talks, CBS Information and Paramount aired a brand new, defamatory 60 Minutes section concerning President Trump’s reputable and vital govt orders addressing illegal exercise within the authorized career, together with election interference and employment discrimination. CBS and Paramount’s makes an attempt to subvert the authorized course of with lies and smears might necessitate further corrective authorized motion, which President Trump reserves the fitting to pursue.”
Not too many strains you have to learn between there to know what’s up: Trump needs cash and a pound of media flesh.
