Paramount announced on Tuesday it agreed to settle President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against its subsidiary CBS over a “60 Minutes” interview with former vice president and then Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris. The president’s lawyers accused CBS of engaging in "unlawful acts of election and voter interference through malicious, deceptive and substantial news distortion” meant to “confuse, deceive, and mislead the public.”
BREAKING: Paramount, CBS's parent, to pay $16M in settlement over Trump’s lawsuit alleging edited 60 Minutes Kamala Harris interview. pic.twitter.com/QFg4jPjBnh
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) July 2, 2025
The $16 million settlement will go toward the president’s legal fees and costs as well as Trump’s future presidential library, according to The New York Times. Paramount also agreed to publish written transcripts of future interviews on “60 Minutes” with presidential candidates. What the settlement does not include, however, is an apology.
Details of the Paramount settlement with Trump over 60 Minutes lawsuit:
— Max Tani (@maxwelltani) July 2, 2025
- $16 million for Trump presidential library
- Release of transcripts in the future
- No apology pic.twitter.com/bbdMxYjOpR
Many lawyers had dismissed Mr. Trump’s lawsuit as baseless and believed that CBS would have ultimately prevailed in court, in part because the network did not report anything factually inaccurate, and the First Amendment gives publishers wide leeway to determine how to present information.
But Shari Redstone, the chair and controlling shareholder of Paramount, told her board that she favored exploring a settlement with Mr. Trump. Some executives at the company viewed the president’s lawsuit as a potential hurdle to completing a multibillion-dollar sale of the company to the Hollywood studio Skydance, which requires the Trump administration’s approval.
After weeks of negotiations with a mediator, lawyers for Paramount and Mr. Trump worked through the weekend to reach a deal ahead of a court deadline that would have required both sides to begin producing internal documents for discovery, according to two people familiar with the negotiations. Another deadline loomed: Paramount was planning to make changes to its board of directors this week that could have complicated the settlement negotiations. (New York Times)
A spokesperson for Trump's legal team called the development "another win for the American people."
“CBS and Paramount Global realized the strength of this historic case and had no choice but to settle,” the spokesman told the Times.