Paramount Global said it would pay $16 million to President Donald Trump to settle a lawsuit tied to “60 Minutes,” betting that the payment will help the company’s fortunes and speed a planned deal with Skydance Media even if it risks tarnishing one of the media giant’s most storied brands.
Paramount said in a statement early Wednesday evening that it had agreed to pay $16 million to President Trump to settle his lawsuit accusing CBS‘s “60 Minutes” of deceptively editing an interview with Kamala Harris and misleading U.S. voters, even though both the company and legal experts had said that Trump’s position in the matter was weak.
At issue in the matter was a “60 Minutes” interview between correspondent Bill Whitaker and former Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, presented on CBS in the days leading into the 2024 election. Trump allegations, filed in federal court in the Northern District of Texas in November, claimed that “60 Minutes” tried to mislead voters by airing two different edits of remarks made in the interview with Harris, then Trump’s rival for the White House. CBS has sought to have the case thrown out. The Federal Communications Commission subsequently opened an investigation into the matter and CBS and Trump attorneys engaged a mediator. Paramount has scheduled its annual corporate meeting with investors for Wednesday, where it is expected to elect new directors.
The company’s handling of the matter sparked anger and dismay at CBS News. Top producers at “60 Minutes” felt Paramount overseers, including controlling shareholder Shari Redstone, had begun inserting themselves into the show’s editing process and story selection, even asking news leaders if certain stories tied to analysis of Trump’s recent policies had to run. Bill Owens, just the third executive producer of the venerable newsmagazine, announced he would leave the show in April, and the CBS executive who supervised its national news division and local stations, Wendy McMahon, exited in May.
According to Paramount, the settlement “does not include a statement of apology or regret,” and that decision may help the company navigate what are likely to be bad reactions from its news personnel. CBS News staffers and producers and correspondents at “60 Minutes” have made clear that the thought of the show offering an apology for conducting an interview with Harris at a key moment would be anathema to anyone in journalism. Trump turned down the opportunity to take part in an interview with the show ahead of the election.
None of the money will be “paid directly or indirectly to President Trump,” but will instead will go toward his presidential library. The company also agreed that its venerable newsmagazine would in the future release transcripts of interviews with eligible U.S. presidential candidates after such interviews have aired, “subject to redactions as required for legal or national security concerns.”
Other sizable media companies have kowtowed to Trump in a bid to make legal pressures vanish. Disney late last year agreed to pay a settlement of $15 million to Donald Trump’s presidential library after anchor George Stephanopoulos asserted incorrectly in March of 2024 on air that Trump had been found liable in a court case for raping writer E. Jean Carroll.
The settlement could embolden Trump to engage in further litigation against media companies whose coverage he dislikes. Last week, a Trump lawyer threatened to sue the New York Times and CNN over their reports about the Pentagon’s early assessment that the U.S. bombings of Iranian nuclear sites set back the country’s nuclear weapons program by “a few months” whereas Trump has claimed Iran’s facilities were “totally obliterated.”
In a third case in which Trump is targeting a news outlet, the president on Monday (June 30) refiled a lawsuit against the Des Moines Register and pollster Ann Selzer in Iowa state court and simultaneously dropped his federal suit. Trump alleges that the newspaper’s poll showing him trailing Harris by three points in Iowa (a state he won by 13 points) represents consumer fraud. A rep for the Des Moines Register said the paper “will continue to resist President Trump’s litigation gamesmanship and believes that regardless of the forum it will be successful in defending its rights under the First Amendment.”
In May, three left-wing U.S. senators — Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Ron Wyden — had warned that a settlement payment by Paramount to the president would be tantamount to an illegal bribe. But it is inconceivable that the Trump administration’s Justice Department would pursue such a bribery charge.
Trump filed the lawsuit just days before the 2024 presidential election, alleging CBS’s “60 Minutes” interview with Harris had violated a Texas consumer protection law by misleading voters. His suit initially asked for $10 billion in damages. In February, the president amended the complaint to seek at least $20 billion. Trump has claimed the edit made Harris appear “more presidential” and asserted that it is “the biggest Broadcasting SCANDAL in History!!!”
Prior to the settlement, Paramount and CBS argued that they did nothing wrong. In a March 2025 motion to dismiss Trump’s suit, Paramount called the legal action “an affront to the First Amendment” that is “without basis in law or fact.” The company reiterated that position in a June 23 reply to Trump’s motion to deny Paramount’s move to dismiss the complaint. CBS News has maintained that the “60 Minutes” broadcast and promotion of the Harris interview was “not doctored or deceitful.”
In a May 28 filing opposing Paramount’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit, Trump’s lawyers claimed that the “60 Minutes” editing of the Harris interview “led to widespread confusion and mental anguish of consumers,” including Trump and his co-plaintiff, Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas). CBS’s “conduct, including news distortion, constituted commercial speech which cannot by any reasonable interpretation be found to have constituted editorial judgment, and that speech damaged Plaintiffs,” the filing said. “The fact that such commercial speech was issued by a news organization does not insulate Defendants from liability under the First Amendment.” Paramount and CBS said Trump had provided no evidence the “60 Minutes” content represented “commercial speech.”
The $8 billion Paramount-Skydance deal is currently pending FCC approval. Under the deal, announced in July 2024 after months of on-again-off-again talks, Skydance, Larry Ellison (father of Skydance CEO David Ellison) and RedBird Capital will buy the shares of Redstone’s NAI (which owns 77% of the voting power in Paramount Global) upon which Skydance will merge with Paramount to become “Paramount Skydance Corp.” Redstone is set to receive $1.75 billion in cash upon closing of the Skydance deal.
Trump-appointed FCC chairman Brendan Carr has maintained the agency’s approval of Paramount-Skydance is not connected to the president’s “60 Minutes” lawsuit. Last November, he said in a Fox News interview that a conservative group’s “news distortion” complaint against CBS over the “60 Minutes” Harris interview was “likely to arise in the context of the FCC review of [the Paramount-Skydance] transaction.” Paramount Global had previously said Trump’s lawsuit “is completely separate from, and unrelated to, the Skydance transaction and the FCC approval process.”
On June 18 at the White House, Trump did not directly answer a reporter’s question about what is holding up approval of the Skydance-Paramount deal. But the president immediately began discussing his “60 Minutes” lawsuit, after saying that Skydance CEO David Ellison will “do a great job” as head of the merged Skydance-Paramount Global.
Trump’s lawsuit caused significant turmoil within CBS News and parent company Paramount. On May 19, CBS News president Wendy McMahon announced her resignation, writing in a memo to staff “It’s become clear that the company and I do not agree on the path forward.” That came less than a month after “60 Minutes” executive producer Bill Owens quit, also citing conflicts with Paramount execs. The departures of McMahon and Owens have been widely viewed as stemming from Paramount executives — at the direction of Redstone — more closely monitoring CBS News operations amid the legal battle with Trump.
In February, Redstone had asked Paramount’s board to resolve the Trump lawsuit, including by exploring the possibility of mediation, Variety has reported. Redstone recused herself from the board’s discussions about a settlement with Trump.
Trump, on his Truth Social social media account in April, said his lawsuit against CBS was “a true WINNER” and falsely claimed that Paramount, CBS and “60 Minutes” admitted to committing “this crime” of deceptively editing Harris’ answer. Trump alleged “60 Minutes” edited the interview to eliminate her “bad and incompetent” response to a question about whether Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “listening to the Biden-Harris administration.” Trump asserted the version of the “60 Minutes” interview that aired “cheated and defrauded the American People at levels never seen before in the Political Arena.”
In response to an FCC request, CBS News made public an unedited transcript of the “60 Minutes” interview with Harris that aired Oct. 6, 2024 (available at this link) and said the materials showed that “consistent with 60 Minutes’ repeated assurances to the public,” the broadcast “was not doctored or deceitful.”
The Trump lawsuit’s claims centered on an exchange in which “60 Minutes” correspondent Bill Whitaker asked Harris about the Biden administration’s relations with Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu. CBS News broadcast a longer portion of Harris’s response on Oct. 6 on “Face the Nation,” whereas the edited “60 Minutes” segment broadcast the next day included a shorter excerpt from the same answer. “Each excerpt reflects the substance of the vice president’s answer,” CBS News had said in a statement.
Below is the unedited portion of the “60 Minutes” exchange, as released by CBS, that Trump’s lawsuit takes issue with. During the interview, Whitaker asked Harris, “Does the U.S. have no sway over [Israeli] Prime Minister Netanyahu?” and then asked this follow-up question:
WHITAKER: But it seems that Prime Minister Netanyahu is not listening. “The Wall Street Journal” said that he — that your administration has repeatedly been blindsided by Netanyahu, and in fact, he has rebuffed just about all of your administration’s entreaties.
HARRIS: 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. And we’re not going to stop doing that. 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.
On the Oct. 6 edition of “Face the Nation,” that exchange was edited to this:
WHITAKER: But it seems that Prime Minister Netanyahu is not listening.
HARRIS: 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.
On the “60 Minutes” segment that aired Oct. 7, the interaction was edited to this:
Whitaker: But it seems that Prime Minister Netanyahu is not listening.
Harris: 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.