Blumenthal Demands FCC & Paramount Produce Details of CBS Settlement with the Trump Administration in "Corrupt Quid Pro Quo"

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] –Today, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, wrote Shari Redstone, Non-Executive Chair for Paramount Global, demanding detailed information and the preservation of records about Paramount’s settlement with President Donald Trump of his frivolous lawsuit brought against CBS News – which came just three weeks before Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr approved Paramount’s $8 billion merger with Skydance Media, now set to close next week.

After the merger’s approval was announced, Trump went on to claim that CBS had agreed to provide him with $20 million in advertising and programming in addition to the $16 million Paramount paid to settle a meritless lawsuit against the company over the airing of a 60 Minutes interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris.

“This decision to settle—which runs directly counter to Paramount’s earlier assertions in court filings about the lack of merit in the President’s lawsuit—transpired after: (1) you reportedly told Paramount’s board you favored a settlement to appease the President, in part so that Paramount could secure FCC approval for its merger with Skydance; and (2) two CBS News executives bravely chose to resign rather than accept corporate interference in independent journalism,” Blumenthal wrote Redstone.

Blumenthal also wrote Carr, seeking information and records about the FCC’s negotiations regarding and approval of the Paramount merger.

“The timing of the FCC’s evaluation and approval of the merger suggests that the agency’s actions were conditioned on payments to the President,” Blumenthal wrote Carr. “The appearance of such a corrupt quid pro quo reeks of a thinly disguised bribe. Moreover, the terms of the FCC’s merger approval once again demonstrate that the FCC is engaged in an unprecedented and illegal campaign to chill free speech and independent news reporting protected by the First Amendment.”

Blumenthal’s letter to Redstone is available here. Blumenthal’s letter to Carr is available here.

Today’s letters continue Blumenthal’s ongoing inquiry into the Trump Administration’s unprecedented and illegal campaign to chill free speech and independent news reporting protected by the First Amendment, including the FCC’s apparent retaliatory actions against media organizations targeted by Trump.

In March, Blumenthal wrote the FCC’s Acting Bureau Chief of the Enforcement Bureau, Patrick Webre, and Acting Bureau Chief of the Media Bureau, Erin Boone, seeking information about the FCC’s recent “unprecedented, intrusive investigations against media broadcasters under arbitrary and capricious pretenses.” In his initial letter to Webre and Boone, Blumenthal highlighted eight recent investigations and complaints by the FCC under Carr that appear to focus on newsrooms and broadcast stations that may be disfavored by Trump. Blumenthal’s letter to the FCC is available here and below.

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