California state senators Tom Umberg and Josh Becker have asked former CBS executives to testify as part of an investigation into Paramount’s offer to settle a legal dispute with President Donald Trump for $15 million.
In November, Trump filed a $10 billion lawsuit against 60 Minutes, the network’s long-running news program, claiming that the program had sought to mislead voters by editing an interview with Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate.
Subsequently, the news program’s executives explained that the cuts and abbreviations denounced by the MAGA leader are commonly applied to all interviews.
Later, Paramount Global, CBS’s parent company, revealed that it intended to settle the lawsuit, despite the opposition of some of the company’s top executives.
Now, California Democrats said Friday they want to open an investigation to determine whether the company violated local antitrust law or ethical limits by yielding to a lawsuit that has been called “frivolous.”
In the letter, addressed to former CBS News CEO Wendy McMahon and former 60 Minutes executive producer Bill Owens, the senators asked whether the company considered settling to secure favorable regulatory treatment and said such behavior would raise deeply troubling implications not only for journalism, but also for the rule of law and the integrity of corporate governance.
Owens left the network in April, expressing concerns about the independence of his show following the legal battle with Trump, in which the president alleged that an interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris was deceptively edited.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Paramount officials disputed the claim but still offered Trump a $15 million settlement, which the president reportedly rejected, however, asking for more money. Earlier this month, McMahon abruptly resigned from her role, saying she disagreed with the company on how to proceed.
Umberg and Becker, who chair California’s Senate Judiciary and Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications committees, respectively, expressed concern that the deal may be illegally anti-competitive, putting the state’s media at a disadvantage because they cannot afford such a “deal.”
They also said they are trying to find out whether Paramount violated federal anti-bribery laws, breached its duties to shareholders or abused corporate funding by offering it to Trump.
