It appears President Donald Trump won’t be getting anywhere close to the $20 billion he demanded from CBS and its parent company Paramount Global now that a mediator proposed a $20 million settlement instead.
The proposal would include a $17 million payment to Trump’s presidential library, $2 million more than ABC’s settlement with Trump in December, and another $3 million in legal fees and public service announcements covering antisemitism, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The proposed offer would end the eight-month dispute between Trump and Paramount after the president sued the company in October over a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris on CBS, which Trump claimed was distorted. CBS has denied Trump’s charge, saying it aired a more succinct version of a Harris answer on Israel for timing reasons, but its parent company entered settlement talks anyway.
Paramount declined to comment. Ed Paltzik, a lawyer for the president, said Trump was “committed to holding those who traffic in fake news, hoaxes, and lies to account.”
“CBS and Paramount targeted the President in an attempt to harm his reputation while committing the worst kind of election interference and fraud in the closing days of the most important presidential election in history,” Paltzik said in a statement. “President Trump will pursue this vital matter to its just and rightful conclusion.”
It is unclear if the offer would include an apology, according to the Journal, which Trump has demanded. Paramount has resisted such efforts throughout the months-long mediation, but such resistance ultimately led to CBS News and Stations President Wendy McMahon to lose her job and 60 Minutes executive producer Bill Owens to resign.
Trump’s initial lawsuit in October demanded the network pay him $10 billion over the episode, claiming the decision to air a clip of the Harris answer on Face the Nation while airing a different portion of the comment during the episode amounted to election interference.
The answer was part of a pre-election special episode of 60 Minutes last year. Trump did not participate in the episode, and he eventually upped his demand to $20 billion earlier this year.
The lawsuit has cast a cloud over Paramount’s planned merger with Skydance Media, billionaire David Ellison’s conglomerate. According to the Journal, Paramount executives fear they could be accused of bribing a federal official by choosing to settle, opening themselves up to legal liability.
The company has since asked the law firm Gibson Dunn to help determine whether settling for more than $15 million, in line with ABC’s settlement, would increase such a risk, according to the Journal.
Federal Communications Chairman and Trump acolyte Brendan Carr has said he would factor an official complaint about the episode into his review of the merger.
