Mediator Proposes $20 Million Settlement in Trump’s CBS Suit
A mediator has proposed that President Trump and Paramount Global PARA 0.08% settle his lawsuit over a CBS News “60 Minutes” interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris for $20 million, according to people familiar with the matter.
The proposal would include a $17 million donation to Trump’s presidential foundation or museum, the people said. It would also include millions more in legal fees and public service announcements on Paramount-owned networks to fight antisemitism, the people said.
Trump’s team has said it wants an apology—something Paramount isn’t prepared to do, according to people familiar with the situation. It couldn’t be learned whether Trump’s team is still seeking an apology.
Settlement talks are still fluid and an agreement might not be reached.
Paramount, which owns CBS News, has been at an impasse with Trump’s lawyers for weeks after entering mediation this spring. The company had offered $15 million to settle the suit, but Trump wanted more than $25 million, The Wall Street Journal previously reported.
Trump alleged in October that the network committed election interference by deceitfully editing a “60 Minutes” interview with Democratic presidential candidate Harris, making her sound better. The lawsuit ultimately sought $20 billion in damages. CBS has said it didn’t doctor her comments, but rather aired a more succinct version of her response.
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. By settling within the range of what other companies have paid to end litigation with Trump, some Paramount executives have said they hope to minimize such liability, people familiar with the matter said.
In recent days, Paramount brought in law firm Gibson Dunn to assess whether it could offer more than $15 million without putting its directors and top executives at risk of future litigation or criminal charges, people familiar with the discussions said.
A potential settlement of $20 million, including legal fees, would be in line with what other media and tech companies have paid to settle lawsuits from Trump.
In December, Disney settled a defamation lawsuit against its ABC News division and star anchor George Stephanopoulos. As part of the settlement, Disney agreed to contribute $15 million to Trump’s presidential foundation or museum and to pay $1 million in legal fees to Trump’s lawyer.
Meta Platforms in January agreed to pay $25 million to settle a 2021 lawsuit from Trump, after the social-media platform suspended his accounts following the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. And X agreed to pay about $10 million to settle a similar suit.
The CBS suit has hung over Paramount’s planned merger with Skydance Media, and the prospect of settling has angered some of the news organization’s executives and staff. CBS News Chief Executive Wendy McMahon told staff last month that she was leaving, marking the second high-profile departure from the news unit. One point of tension between McMahon and Paramount was her unwillingness to issue an apology to Trump as part of any potential settlement of the lawsuit, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Brendan Carr, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, has said that a third-party news distortion complaint about the interview’s edit could factor into the agency’s review of the Paramount-Skydance merger.
Based on that complaint, Carr is pursuing an inquiry into how CBS News handled the interview edit and demanded the company release the full transcript and raw footage. The company did so earlier this year.
The FCC has authority over the Paramount-Skydance transaction because it would involve the transfer of broadcast television licenses held by CBS. The chairman has broad discretion to block a merger or delay its review.
Write to Jessica Toonkel at jessica.toonkel@wsj.com and Josh Dawsey at Joshua.Dawsey@WSJ.com