Paramount reaches $16M settlement in Trump lawsuit over Kamala Harris interview

US media giant Paramount Global has reached a $16 million settlement in a lawsuit filed by President Donald Trump over the editing of a 2024 interview with then-Vice President and presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

According to CBS, the major network owned by Paramount Global, the company announced the settlement late Tuesday, stating that the amount will cover plaintiffs' legal fees and be allocated to Trump's planned presidential library. Neither Trump nor the co-plaintiff, Texas Rep. Ronny Jackson, will receive a personal payout.

The agreement does not include an apology, the report says, but the step is a dramatic development in the case. Staffers at 60 Minutes, CBS' long-running news magazine, which carried the interview, reportedly strongly opposed the settlement, seeing it as kowtowing to repeated Trump administration efforts to control the media.

Trump sued Paramount last October, alleging that CBS News selectively edited Harris' remarks about the Biden administration's stance on Israel. Excerpts of the interview were aired on two programs, Face the Nation and 60 Minutes, leading to accusations from Trump that the network misrepresented the exchange in a way that harmed his presidential campaign.

Harris lost the presidential race last November.

CBS News defended its editing practices, saying the segment was shortened for time in line with standard newsroom procedures. It declined to release the full transcript at the time.

As part of the settlement, Paramount said future 60 Minutes interviews with US presidential candidates will be accompanied by published transcripts, with redactions made only when necessary for legal or national security reasons.

In a statement, a spokesman for Trump's legal team called the settlement “another win for the American people” against “the fake news media.”

Last December, the US' ABC News agreed to pay the same sum, $16 million, over a defamation case filed by Trump. Media analysts say two settlements from two major television networks could encourage Trump to file more such lawsuits.

Some analysts have linked the settlement to a proposed merger of Paramount with the Hollywood studio Skydance, which would need government approval, but Paramount has denied any such link.