Claiming reputational damage and emotional distress, President Donald Trump is suing Paramount Global over what his legal team calls a deceptive edit of a “60 Minutes” segment featuring Kamala Harris.
Filed in a Texas federal court, the $20 billion suit accuses CBS News of intentionally cutting footage in a way that favored Harris and harmed Trump’s standing as a “content creator.”
Though Trump refused to participate in a “60 Minutes” interview during the election cycle, his legal team says he was nonetheless injured by how Harris’ interview was aired. Two versions of her response to a question by journalist Bill Whitaker were broadcast on “60 Minutes” and “Face the Nation,” which CBS insists were condensed for clarity but taken from a single, lengthy reply.
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Trump’s lawyer, Edward Andrew Paltzik, argued that the edit created public confusion and “led to widespread confusion and mental anguish of consumers, including plaintiffs, regarding a household name of the legacy media apparently deceptively distorting its broadcasts, and then resisting attempts to clear the public record.”
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The fallout, Paltzik claims, impacted Trump’s reach and reputation, diverting attention from him and his Truth Social platform. He added, “Trump was forced to redirect significant time, money and effort to correcting the public record.”
Despite efforts to dismiss the case, Paramount has reportedly entered settlement talks with Trump, a move that has reportedly rocked CBS News. Both Wendy McMahon, CBS News’ president and CEO, and “60 Minutes” executive producer Bill Owens have resigned in recent weeks, allegedly over concerns about the settlement’s implications.
Sources told The Wall Street Journal that Paramount has floated a $15 million offer to resolve the matter, but Trump is demanding more, along with a formal apology. The company has not commented on the report.
Settlement talks have raised alarms outside CBS as well. The Freedom of the Press Foundation, a media watchdog group and self-described Paramount shareholder, said it would take legal action if any deal is finalized. Its advocacy director, Seth Stern, warned that settling “may well be a thinly veiled effort to launder bribes through the court system.”
Meanwhile, U.S. Senators Bernie Sanders, Ron Wyden, and Elizabeth Warren have begun examining whether a potential payout to Trump could violate anti-bribery laws, especially as Paramount seeks federal approval for a proposed merger with Skydance Media.
