Paramount to Pay Trump $16 Million to Settle '60 Minutes' Lawsuit

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: New York Times

Paramount to Pay Trump $16 Million to Settle ‘60 Minutes’ Lawsuit

President Trump had sued over an interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris. The company needs federal approval for a multibillion-dollar sale.


President Trump sued Paramount for $10 billion last year, claiming that “60 Minutes” deceptively edited an interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris in order to interfere with the election. Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times

By Benjamin MullinMichael M. GrynbaumLauren Hirsch and David Enrich
July 2, 2025
Updated 1:34 a.m. ET

Paramount said late Tuesday that it has agreed to pay President Trump $16 million to settle his lawsuit over the editing of an interview on the CBS News program “60 Minutes,” an extraordinary concession to a sitting president by a major media organization. … Paramount said its payment includes Mr. Trump’s legal fees and costs and that the money, minus the legal fees, will be paid to Mr. Trump’s future presidential library.

As part of the settlement, Paramount said that it had agreed to release written transcripts of future “60 Minutes” interviews with presidential candidates. The company said that the settlement did not include an apology. … The deal is the clearest sign yet that Mr. Trump’s ability to intimidate major American institutions extends to the media industry.

{snip}

The size of the settlement, $16 million, is the same sum that ABC News agreed to pay in December to settle a defamation case filed by Mr. Trump against the network and one of its anchors, George Stephanopoulos. Paramount’s board was concerned that paying a higher amount to settle the case could increase the company’s exposure to potential legal actions from shareholders accusing them of bribery.

The sale of Paramount would end the Redstone family’s decades-long control of CBS News and Paramount Pictures and put it in the hands of David Ellison, the son of Larry Ellison, a tech billionaire who has backed Mr. Trump.

{snip}

Tyler Pager contributed reporting.
Benjamin Mullin reports for The Times on the major companies behind news and entertainment. Contact him securely on Signal at [phone] or at [e-mail].

Michael M. Grynbaum is a media correspondent at The Times. He is the author of "Empire of the Elite," a cultural history of Condé Nast magazines.

Lauren Hirsch is a Times reporter who covers deals and dealmakers in Wall Street and Washington.

David Enrich is a deputy investigations editor for The Times. He writes about law and business.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/02/business/media/paramount-trump-60-minutes-lawsuit.html

[pfitz59]

1. The extortionist president

coercian, extortion, emoluments violations... its a racket.

[wolfie001]

5. $10 million for scam bitcoin?

You're free to go.

[murielm99]

2. WTF?

[Irish_Dem]

3. Trump will punish the media when they give honest, fair, positive coverage of liberals.

The media will learn its lesson and favorable coverage only goes to Trump.

Damn the media.

[wolfie001]

6. Yep! "Freedom of the Press" is long gone

Nice knowin' ya. Freedom for billionaires is the new and only "Bill of Right". Just need one now.

[Irish_Dem]

7. The rich and the MAGAs are the only ones with rights now.

So it is might makes right.

It is no longer right makes might.

[wolfie001]

4. And the christo-fascist farce continues thanks to those 6 nasty f6cks on the SC

Is there any end to this insanity?

[Rhiannon12866]

8. Damn! He was invited, but didn't even show up!

[BoRaGard]

9. Paramount goes to its knees -- pays the fascist

whimp out -

[LudwigPastorius]

33. Yes a deadly (to journalism) combo of greed and cowardice.

[Buddyzbuddy]

10. A possibility as to why Shari settled.

Last edited Tue Jul 8, 2025, 10:50 PM - Edit history (1)

If a deal to sell the studios has been reached then funds from all parties involved in the sale may be sitting in an escrow account
The civil litigation may put the deal on hold, in which case it might be cheaper and easier to just settle to make the case go away. This happened sometimes when I was selling properties.

In real estate a "clean title" is most desirable. Any liens or litigation can stall or cause a no sale. Settlement is the fastest way to complete the sale.
The Felon would try to take advantage of this situation. He would be well aware of the ramifications to the deal.

[Pacifist Patriot]

13. That was my thought as well.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

30. Yep

That's exactly it.

[kkmarie]

11. Question can we the people

Can we the people file a class action against fox, newsmax, and oan for editing Krasnov's interviews and press conferences? And for blatant lies about the democrats. And the media's sanewashing of Krasnov?

I feel these organizations have caused irreparable harm both physically and financially to we the people and we should seek damages in the amount of 10 quintillion ( the value of the mineral rich asteroid).





10 quintillion ÷ 350 million people = 2.857 billion per person.

[onenote]

16. no.

[GiqueCee]

12. I'm disappointed...

... but not the least bit surprised, at the craven cowardice of Paramount's executives. They could have beat that sonofabitch like cheap drum, but instead, chose to wallow in obsequious self-degradation.
May their dreams be forever haunted by this grotesque mistake. It only serves to encourage the evil fuck to do it again.

[Vinca]

14. While you want them to fight back, it does make sense to settle what is, essentially, a nuisance claim.

In the end, $16 million is chump change to a company like this and is probably even deductible.

[onenote]

18. If my math is correct, its 57 ten thousandths of one percent of the value of the merger

The merger that Paramount wants approved is valued at around 28 Billion dollars. Sixteen million is less than even chump change.

[Rastapopoulos]

29. Or to put it another way...

Sixteen million dollars to a $30 billion dollar company (2023 annual revenues) is like $35 to an average full-time worker in the U.S (median income 2024).

[Bengus81]

22. Yeah and hike rates of Paramount+ to pay for it and make MORE cash

Not from me...fuck em!

[sinkingfeeling]

15. Another extortion.

[travelingthrulife]

17. Unbelievable weakness.

[Paladin]

19. Oh, by all means---encourage him, Paramount.

Unforgivable weakness.

[mdbl]

20. So CBS is no longer a trusted news source.

Whether you already thought that or not, they just solidified that fact.

[Bengus81]

21. You will lose at least one Paramount+ subscriber in Sept when it renews CBS

Fuck you clowns. Now Trump will be on to the next one. Easy FUCKING money............

[ECL213]

23. Fucking Spineless!!

I am absolutely disgusted by these "news" organizations caving to this motherfucker. I put news in quotes because a REAL news organization would fight these bullshit lawsuits to the very end. These are just companies hawking a product they won't stand behind. It's cheaper to throw money at the problem. No fucking scruples!

[MayReasonRule]

24. Settlement Details

[the nelm]

25. All so what's her face, the woman who owns, or is majority owner in, Paramount can...

sell her company. She should have offered him a $1. That's all this nuisance suit was worth, if that. Effing ridiculous.

[BlueTsunami2018]

26. Why would they pay him? It makes zero sense.

They didn’t do anything wrong. This is just normalizing the asshole and his behavior.

[bucolic_frolic]

27. Geez, how do we get in on the shakedown business?

[Hotler]

28. From The Godfather....

[LetMyPeopleVote]

31. Maddow Blog-Paramount to pay $16 million to settle with Trump in CBS News '60 Minutes' lawsui

The question was less about whether Paramount would settle with Trump, and more about how much his lawyers would accept.

Paramount executives were worried it might look like they were bribing Trump by giving him millions of dollars to settle a baseless lawsuit based on a bizarre conspiracy theory.

Now that the settlement is official, they were right to be concerned. www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2025-07-02T12:17:20.550Z

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/paramount-settles-trump-cbs-news-60-minutes-lawsuit-rcna203667

After months of legal negotiations and wrangling, the question was less about whether Paramount would settle with Donald Trump, and more about how much the president’s lawyers would agree to. As NBC News reported, that question now has an answer.

Paramount has agreed to pay $16 million to settle a lawsuit brought by President Donald Trump that had alleged an interview that aired on CBS’s “60 Minutes” last year with Kamala Harris, his Democratic opponent for the presidency, was deceptively edited. The agreement in principle, proposed by a mediator, includes plaintiffs’ fees and costs and — except for fees and costs — will be allocated to Trump’s future presidential library, Paramount Global said in a statement late Tuesday.

The company did not apologize as part of the deal or admit any fault. Nevertheless, the plaintiff wasted little time in gloating: In a written statement from a presidential spokesperson, Team Trump boasted that the settlement “holds the Fake News media accountable for their wrongdoing and deceit.”.....

In fact, The Wall Street Journal reported last week, “Over the past few months, Paramount leaders have been wrestling with how to pay to settle the lawsuit without exposing directors and officers to liability in potential future shareholder litigation or to criminal charges for bribing a public official.”

This dynamic was not lost on Capitol Hill observers. “Paramount appears to be trying to settle a lawsuit that it has assessed as ‘completely without merit,’” Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Ron Wyden said in a recent letter to Chairwoman Shari Redstone. “Under the federal bribery statute, it is illegal to corruptly give anything of value to public officials to influence an official act. If Paramount officials make these concessions in a quid pro quo arrangement to influence President Trump or other Administration officials, they may be breaking the law.”

Now that the settlement is official, and Paramount is paying Team Trump to settle a case that appears baseless, it’s likely these questions are poised to grow considerably louder.

This ongoing debacle has already cost the network — over the last couple of months, the head of CBS News and the executive producer of “60 Minutes” have both stepped down — and those costs now also include a steep price tag.

[Justice matters.]

32. How is that not racketeering?

Oh, if you don't pay, it would be sad if something bad happens to your network...