CBS Agrees to Pay Trump $16 Million in Lawsuit

Paramount has agreed to a $16 million settlement with President Donald Trump over claims that CBS News’ “60 Minutes” edited an interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris during the 2024 campaign.

The New York Times described the matter as “an extraordinary concession to a sitting president by a major media organization.” 

Late last year, ABC News agreed to pay $15 million toward Trump’s presidential library to settle a defamation lawsuit over anchor George Stephanopoulos’ inaccurate on-air assertion that the president-elect had been found civilly liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll.

As part of that settlement, ABC News posted an editor’s note to its website expressing regret over Stephanopoulos’ statements during a March 10, 2024, segment on his “This Week” program. The network also agreed to pay $1 million in legal fees to the law firm of Trump’s attorney, Alejandro Brito.

Stephanopoulos wrongly claimed that Trump had been “found liable for rape” and “defaming the victim of that rape.”

Neither verdict involved a finding of rape as defined under New York law.

In the first of the lawsuits to go to trial, Trump was found liable last year for sexually abusing and defaming Carroll. A jury ordered him to pay her $5 million.

Earlier, at a second trial in federal court in Manhattan, Trump was found liable on additional defamation claims and ordered to pay Carroll $83.3 million.

Meanwhile, Paramount said its payment includes the president’s legal fees and costs and that the money, minus the legal fees, will be paid to Trump’s future presidential library.

As part of the settlement, Paramount said that it had agreed to release written transcripts of future “60 Minutes” interviews with presidential candidates. 

The company said that the settlement did not include an apology.