The president’s lawyer claimed that the president suffered ‘mental distress’ due to the editing of the interview aired by 60 Minutes during the campaign.
NEW YORK.- CBS’s parent company, Paramount, reached a last-minute agreement on Tuesday regarding a lawsuit filed by President of the United States, Donald Trump, over an interview with then-Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris that aired in October, marking the latest concession from a media company to a president who has attacked the press for what he describes as false or misleading coverage.Paramount stated that it will pay $16 million to settle the lawsuit, with the money allocated to the future presidential library of the president, but will not be paid to Trump ‘directly or indirectly.»The agreement does not include a statement of apology or remorse,’ the company’s statement added, and noted that it had agreed to publish the written transcripts of future 60 Minutes interviews with presidential candidates.
The CBS logo at the entrance of its headquarters in New York on December 6, 2018. Mark Lennihan – AP
«Mental anguish»
Trump filed a $10 billion lawsuit against CBS in October, claiming that the network misleadingly edited an interview that aired on its 60 Minutes program with then-Vice President and presidential candidate Kamala Harris to «tip the scales in favor of the Democratic Party» in the elections.
Paramount and CBS rejected the claim that the interview was edited to improve Harris’s image and requested that the lawsuit be dismissed.
Trump’s lawyer stated that the president had suffered «mental distress» due to CBS News’s editing of the interview.
The president of the United States, Donald Trump, speaks at a round table in the ‘Alligator Alcatraz’, a new detention center for migrants at the Dade-Collier training and transition facilities, on July 1, 2025, in Ochopee, Florida.
In a modified lawsuit filed in February, Trump raised his claim for damages to $20 billion.CBS aired two versions of the interview with Harris in which she seems to give different answers to the same question about the war between Israel and Hamas, according to the lawsuit filed in a federal court in Texas.The transcript of the interview showed that Harris gave a long response to a question about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. About 21 seconds of that response were aired in a preview of the interview on Face the Nation, another CBS News program. And a distinct seven-second clip was aired the following day in a prime time episode of 60 Minutes. Trump claimed in his lawsuit that CBS’s actions amounted to «informational distortion» aimed at tipping the scales in favor of the Democratic Party. Paramount questioned that description.
Shari Redstone, chairwoman and majority shareholder of Paramount, stated before her board of directors that she was in favor of exploring a deal with Trump. Some executives at the company saw the president’s lawsuit as a possible obstacle to completing the multi-million dollar sale of the company to Hollywood studio Skydance, which requires approval from Trump’s government.Trump’s legal team celebrated the deal. «With this record agreement, President Donald J. Trump offers another victory for the American people,» said a spokesperson.
Bad precedent
The case has been closely followed by advocates for press freedom and by CBS journalists, whose lawyers described Trump’s lawsuit as «completely unfounded» and promised to fight it vigorously.
The agreement is the clearest signal to date that Trump’s ability to intimidate major U.S. institutions extends to the media industry.
Some press advocates and specialized lawyers believe that these settlements set a bad precedent and increase the likelihood of more lawsuits against the media, especially when the cases lack merit.
ABC News faced criticism in December for paying $15 million — also for Trump’s future library — to settle a lawsuit brought by him. Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, also reached a settlement for $25 million in January in a lawsuit filed by Trump.
«If you resolve the cases, you will send a message to your news team not to overreach for fear of being sued by people,» said Edward Klaris, a veteran media lawyer, «and you will present more cases against your company because they might think that if they sue you, they will win.
The Freedom of the Press Foundation, a media advocacy group that claims to be a shareholder in Paramount, indicated that it would file a lawsuit in protest if a settlement were reached.
