US President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that CBS parent company Paramount Global has paid $16 million to settle a lawsuit over a 2020 broadcast of 60 Minutes that he alleged was deceptively edited.
The legal dispute centred on an interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris that aired on the flagship news programme in October, during the final weeks of the presidential campaign. Trump claimed that the broadcast was manipulated in a way that misrepresented the context of Harris’s remarks, resulting in reputational harm.
Paramount declined to comment on the settlement. However, a court filing confirmed that both parties formally agreed to dismiss the lawsuit on Tuesday.
“We have just achieved a BIG AND IMPORTANT WIN in our historic lawsuit against 60 Minutes, CBS, and Paramount,” Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social. “Paramount/CBS/60 Minutes have today paid $16 million dollars in settlement, and we also anticipate receiving $20 million dollars more from the new owners.”
The mention of “new owners” appears to reference the pending $8.4 billion merger between Paramount and Skydance Media. The deal is currently under review by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which has not yet issued a decision despite passing the informal 180-day deadline in mid-May. FCC Chair Brendan Carr has publicly denied that Trump’s lawsuit had any bearing on the commission’s ongoing review.
Paramount later issued a statement clarifying that the settlement “does not include PSAs or anything related to PSAs,” and said it had “no knowledge of any promises or commitments made to President Trump other than those put forth by the mediator.”
The case marks one of several defamation or media-related lawsuits pursued by Trump in recent years, as he continues to challenge what he describes as bias and misrepresentation by mainstream news outlets.
The terms of the settlement beyond the initial payment remain undisclosed.
Melissa Enoch
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