Paramount Could Violate Anti-Bribery Law If It Pays to Settle Trump’s ‘60 Minutes’ Lawsuit, Senators Claim

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Three influential U.S. senators cautioned Paramount Global and their major stakeholder, Shari Redstone, about the potential violation of a federal anti-corruption law should they opt to resolve former President Trump’s lawsuit concerning a “60 Minutes” episode by giving in to his demands.

In a letter made available to the public, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) referenced news articles indicating that Paramount is in negotiations with Trump’s legal team regarding a lawsuit. The lawsuit, filed by Trump, claims CBS’s “60 Minutes” program manipulated an interview with Kamala Harris, violating Texas consumer protection laws, and seeks at least $20 billion in damages. However, both Paramount and CBS have stated they are innocent; they argued that the motion to dismiss the lawsuit is a breach of the First Amendment and lacks legal basis. CBS News asserts that the “60 Minutes” broadcast and promotion of the Harris interview were not altered or misleading.

In a letter dated May 19, the senators expressed their worry that media company Paramount Global might be negotiating with the Trump Administration inappropriately to secure approval for its merger with Skydance Media. They imply that this could mean Paramount is going back on its promises to safeguard CBS’s First Amendment rights, and they caution that any monetary settlement in such a case could potentially be unlawful.

According to federal bribery laws, it’s prohibited to offer anything valuable to public figures with the intention of influencing their decisions. If Paramount executives grant such concessions in exchange for favors to impact President Trump or other administration officials, they might be violating the law.

The original letter can be found here. On May 6th, Warren and Sanders were part of a group of nine senators who penned an open letter to Redstone, advising against settling the ongoing lawsuit. They characterized this lawsuit as a direct assault on the United States Constitution and the First Amendment.

Representatives from Paramount chose not to provide additional comments but instead pointed towards their earlier statement, which read: “The ongoing lawsuit has no connection whatsoever with the Skydance transaction or the FCC’s approval process. We will adhere to the legal proceedings to argue our case.” A spokesperson for Redstone opted not to comment as well. The White House has yet to respond to our request for a statement.

Additional Reading: Shari Redstone Faces a Dilemma: She Cannot Preserve Both ’60 Minutes’ and Paramount Global

The $8 billion merger between Paramount and Skydance is yet to receive approval from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Recently, Brendan Carr, who was appointed as FCC chairman by President Trump, stated that the approval of Paramount-Skydance has no connection to Trump’s “60 Minutes” lawsuit. Previously, in November, Carr had expressed that the potential Trump-related CBS lawsuit might be relevant during the review process of the Paramount-Skydance transaction.

On Monday, I found myself expressing my resignation as president of CBS News, Wendy McMahon, in a memo to our team. I penned that it’s evident that the company and I have differing views on the direction we should take moving forward. This decision comes just weeks after Bill Owens, the executive producer of “60 Minutes”, chose to step down for similar reasons – disagreements with Paramount executives. The senators Warren, Sanders, and Wyden have raised eyebrows about our departures, suggesting that they may be connected to the ongoing legal battle with the Trump administration. They argue that Paramount’s efforts to win favor from the administration could potentially jeopardize journalistic integrity and raise concerns of unethical behavior.

In their letter to Redstone, the senators sought answers to certain queries about the current situation by June 2. Among these questions were: “Does Paramount consider the lawsuit filed by Trump (during his candidacy) against CBS to be valid?”, “Has Paramount assessed the potential for shareholder derivative litigation arising from a settlement of this lawsuit?”, and “Has 60 Minutes modified its content due to any requests from Paramount to smooth over the merger’s approval process?”

As a movie enthusiast, I found myself pondering this question: Did Paramount Pictures share their internal guidelines regarding adherence to the provisions of 18 U.S.C. 201 and any other laws pertaining to public corruption? If they do, I was eagerly waiting for a glimpse into these regulations. After all, understanding a studio’s commitment to ethical practices is as important as knowing their approach to cinematography.

Last month, Donald Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that his lawsuit against CBS was a “resounding victory,” but he falsely stated that Paramount, CBS, and “60 Minutes” confessed to the crime of manipulatively editing Vice President Harris’ response. Trump argued that “60 Minutes” edited the interview to exclude Harris’ supposed unfavorable and inept answer regarding whether Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was heeding the Biden-Harris administration. Trump claimed the broadcasted version of the “60 Minutes” interview deceived and swindled the American public at unprecedented levels in the political sphere.

The senators’ letter to Redstone was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

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2025-05-20 18:16