Donald Trump and Paramount don’t have a deal yet to settle POTUS’ months-old $20 billion 60 Minutes lawsuit, but the Shari Redstone-ruled media comp
Donald Trump and Paramount don’t have a deal yet to settle POTUS’ months-old $20 billion 60 Minutes lawsuit, but the Shari Redstone-ruled media company has put some stern millions on the table in the hopes to make this roadblock to a merger with Skydance disappear.
“It’s very early days,” a source close to talks between Trump’s lawyers and Paramount’s attorneys and execs tells Deadline. “An opening offer has been made, but more negotiations are underway,” the source confirmed. But they would not go into specifics beyond saying, “Right now, it’s an eight-figure discussion.”
In the waning days of last year’s bitter election, Trump went after longtime foil CBS over the way that its 60 Minutes had edited a wide-ranging interview with Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.
Asking for a headline-grabbing $20 billion, the Hail Mary action alleged violations of Texas’ Deceptive Trade Practices Act, which typically is used by consumers for false advertising claims.
Earlier today, The Wall Street Journal reported that Paramount has offered $15 million, but Trump’s team wanted $25 million and an apology from CBS News. When asked by Deadline if the $15 million number that the WSJ reported today, the Trump team’s rejection and threat of a fresh suit was right, another individual with knowledge of the mediation replied, “Sounds about right, as where things are at.”
A rep for Paramount declined to comment on the state of the bargaining or the WSJ story Wednesday on the sums being discussed Trump’s legal team, and the White House did not respond to Deadline’s request for comment.
Since first filing his 60 Minutes suit in October, Trump handily beat the then-VP Harris and returned to the White House.
Even before his second inauguration as tech overlords, moguls and CEOs began to bend the knee, Trump secured a $15 million and more payout from Disney over a March 2024 edition of ABC’s This Week where George Stephanopoulos said that “juries have found” Trump “liable for rape.”
Parsing the legal distinction, Trump actually was found liable early last year by a civil jury for sexually abusing and defaming writer E. Jean Carroll — an outcome the former and current POTUS has ridiculed constantly. As well as handing Trump a win and some cash, the Bob Iger-run media giant’s resolution of the then-candidate’s defamation suit set the tone for Trump 2.0, even as companies and executives that have sought to curry favor found themselves just as quickly back in the firing line.
Opening by promising to go after his enemies real and imagined, Trump quickly launched a Project 2025-fueled purging of the federal government — with the lend a hand of his top backer Elon Musk — and instituted more Viktor Orbán-inspired attacks on the media. To that, the prospect of a settlement in Trump’s 60 Minutes suit has rattled CBS News and the acclaimed newsmagazine series in particular, as leaders have been resistant to such a move.
Bill Owens, the executive producer of 60 Minutes, resigned last month, saying that he no longer could get the independence that the show long has enjoyed from the parent corporation. Wendy McMahon, the president and CEO of CBS News and Stations, announced her departure this month. She was a defender of the news division amid concerns over the settlement. Even as the likes of Sen. Bernie Sanders warned Redstone that any deal with Trump could constitute a violation of federal bribery laws, some CBS News staffers took McMahon’s exit as a sign that a settlement could be imminent.
They might be correct, at least from what we are hearing today and the thrust of the WSJ piece.
Still, even in that context, Trump’s 60 Minutes lawsuit is widely seen as meritless. Yet, the litigation comes as CBS’ parent company Paramount Global and majority shareholder Redstone are desperate for the administration to grant regulatory approval for its multibillion-dollar merger with Skydance.
(L-R) Shari Redstone and David Ellison
Getty Images
The David Ellison-led Skydance, with a little lend a hand from patriarch Larry Ellison, and backer RedBird Capital agreed in July to acquire Paramount Global with an $8 billion investment, capping a bumpy seven-month courtship. But the drama continued as the deal requires approval by the FCC, currently headed by Chair Brendan Carr, who was promoted by Trump personally. It’s been snail-paced going, and the would-be partners saw a 90-day extension set off in April.
Before he took his position as FCC chair, Carr said that the 60 Minutes complaint, which also is the subject of Trump’s lawsuit, was “likely to arise” as part of the merger review. He has since said that the president’s lawsuit, though, is on a totally separate track from the merger consideration.
Over the weekend, a commencement speech from 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley a few weeks ago went viral and drew sturdy and immediate scorn from MAGA media. Speaking to Wake Forest University graduates, Pelley said: “Our sacred rule of law is under attack. Journalism is under attack. Universities are under attack. Freedom of speech is under attack. An insidious fear is reaching through our schools, our businesses, our homes and into our private thoughts. The fear to speak. In America?”
As for that looming threat of Trump launching a fresh lawsuit against CBS and perhaps Paramount, this is what POTUS’ attorney, Ed Paltzik, said last week: “During ongoing settlement talks, CBS News and Paramount aired a new, defamatory 60 Minutes segment regarding President Trump’s legitimate and necessary executive orders addressing unlawful activity in the legal profession, including election interference and employment discrimination. CBS and Paramount’s attempts to subvert the legal process with lies and smears may necessitate additional corrective legal action, which President Trump reserves the right to pursue.”
Not too many lines you need to read between there to know what’s up: Trump wants money and a pound of media flesh.
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