A group of U.S. Senators, led by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), sent a letter to Sheri Redstone on Tuesday asking the Paramount Global chairwoman not to settle a lawsuit filed by President Donald Trump against CBS.
Trump’s suit, originally seeking $10 billion in damages, centers on a 60 Minutes interview the network aired with former Vice President Kamala Harris. The president amended his suit in February, citing “deceptive” editing as grounds for doubling the damages sought to $20 billion.
The Washington Examiner obtained a copy of the letter, which was reported Wednesday morning by Semafor, in which Sanders argues the case against settling the lawsuit.
“In March, Paramount, the parent company of CBS, did the right thing by filing two motions to dismiss Trump’s case calling it “an affront to the First Amendment” that “is without basis in law or fact” and asserting that: “In our system, the remedy for disagreement with political speech one does not like is counter-speech not court-enforced damages under the guise of commercial regulations,” the letter reads. “We, and most legal experts who have reviewed this case, could not agree more. This lawsuit is an attack on the United States Constitution and the First Amendment. It has absolutely no merit and it cannot stand.”
Reports indicate that Paramount is considering settling with Trump for roughly $75 million, which Sanders and company characterized as a probable “grave mistake.”
“Rewarding Trump with tens of millions of dollars for filing this bogus lawsuit will not cause him to back down on his war against the media and a free press,” the letter continued. “It will only embolden him to shakedown, extort and silence CBS and other media outlets that have the courage to report about issues that Trump may not like. We urge you and the board of directors at Paramount to make it clear to President Trump today that Paramount will not surrender to his attack on the First Amendment.”
Paramount did not return requests for comment. White House officials directed the Washington Examiner to a statement Trump made on Truth Social earlier in the day.
“The Election Interfering 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris, which aired on CBS just before Election Day and deep into Early Voting, turned out to be much worse than expected, with her answers being unlawfully fixed, manipulated, and doctored throughout by CBS, in order to try and make Kamala appear at least somewhat coherent,” the president wrote on Truth Social. “The full transcript, which 60 Minutes, CBS, and Paramount tried to hide from the American People, and refused to release until after I was already Inaugurated, and they were ordered to do so by the Federal Communications Commission, shows that the ‘interview’ was nothing but fake, corrupt, anti-Trump propaganda.
“On top of that, in a total slap in the face to anyone who believes in TRUTH and Honest Journalism, this Fake News Puff Piece has now been nominated for an award by the totally discredited Emmys,” he continued. “Did 60 Minutes and its Corporate Parents apply to get an Emmy for an illegally falsified interview, or did other Fake Outlets nominate them for this dubious ‘honor’? These antics are why the American People have no trust in the Press, and demand that the Media, very much including 60 Minutes, CBS, and its owners, be held responsible for their corruption and lies, which is exactly what we are doing in Court!”
Since amending his lawsuit in February, Trump has slowly ramped up his attacks on CBS.
In an April post on Truth Social, the president called on the Federal Communications Commission to strip CBS of its broadcast license.
“They did not one, but TWO, major stories on ‘TRUMP,’ one having to do with Ukraine, which I say is a War that would never have happened if the 2020 Election had not been RIGGED, in other words, if I were President and, the other story was having to do with Greenland, casting our Country, as led by me, falsely, inaccurately, and fraudulently,” Trump wrote of CBS.
TRUMP SAYS HE WON’T DROP 145% CHINA TARIFFS TO ADVANCE NEGOTIATIONS, AS REQUESTED BY BEIJING
And on Tuesday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials targeted multiple restaurants in Washington, D.C., as part of a crackdown on illegal immigrants in the district workforce, though they did not make any arrests. One of the restaurants was Chef Geoff’s, owned by Chef Geoff Tracy, the husband of CBS News senior correspondent Norah O’Donnell.
