Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren castigated Paramount Global for its announced $16 million payment to President Trump to settle a “meritless” lawsuit — and said the parent company of CBS “should be ashamed of putting its profits over independent journalism.”
Warren, the senior U.S. senator from Massachusetts, again raised the idea that Paramount’s payment to Trump represents an illegal bribe. On Wednesday, she called for an investigation into “whether or not any anti-bribery laws were broken.”
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“With Paramount folding to Donald Trump at the same time the company needs his administration’s approval for its billion-dollar merger, this could be bribery in plain sight,” Warren said in a statement. “Paramount has refused to provide answers to a congressional inquiry, so I’m calling for a full investigation into whether or not any anti-bribery laws were broken.”
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Trump sued CBS and Paramount in October 2024, alleging that “60 Minutes” edited an interview with Kamala Harris in a way that violated a Texas consumer protection law by distorting voters’ impressions of her. Legal experts have said Trump’s suit was baseless and that CBS was protected under the First Amendment. Under the settlement, Paramount and CBS will not issue a “statement of apology or regret,” as Trump’s lawyers had been pushing for.
In May 2025, Warren, along with Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) wrote a letter to Shari Redstone, non-executive chair of Paramount Global and its controlling shareholder, saying that Paramount may be engaging in potentially illegal conduct involving the Trump Administration “in exchange for approval of its merger with Skydance Media.”
Wyden, in social media posts Wednesday, echoed Warren’s sentiments. “Paramount just paid Trump a bribe for merger approval,” he wrote. “When Democrats retake power, I’ll be first in line calling for federal charges. In the meantime, state prosecutors should make the corporate execs who sold out our democracy answer in court, today.”
And Sanders blasted the settlement as well. “The decision by the Redstone family, the major owners of Paramount, to settle a bogus lawsuit with President Trump over a ’60 Minutes’ report he did not like is an extremely dangerous precedent in terms of both the First Amendment and government extortion,” the senator said in a statement. “Paramount’s decision will only embolden Trump to continue attacking, suing and intimidating the media which he has labeled ‘the enemy of the people.’ It is a dark day for independent journalism and freedom of the press — an essential part of our democracy. It is a victory for a president who is attempting to stifle dissent and undermine American democracy.”
Sanders concluded: “Make no mistake about it. Trump is undermining our democracy and rapidly moving us towards authoritarianism and the billionaires who care more about their stock portfolios than our democracy are helping him do it.”
Paramount Global has previously insisted that Trump’s lawsuit “is completely separate from, and unrelated to, the Skydance transaction and the FCC approval process. We will abide by the legal process to defend our case.” FCC chair Brendan Carr also has claimed Trump’s lawsuit is not related to the agency’s deal approval, although he has said a conservative organization’s “news distortion” complaint over the “60 Minutes” Harris segment would likely be part of the Skydance-Paramount review.
FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, currently the lone Democrat commissioner at the agency, also characterized the “Paramount Payout” as “a desperate move to appease the Administration and secure regulatory approval of a major transaction currently pending before the FCC.”
“For months, it has been clear that this lawsuit was entirely meritless, just like the complaint now before the Commission,” Gomez said in a statement. “But instead of standing on principle, Paramount opted for a payout. That decision now casts a long shadow over the integrity of the transaction pending before the FCC. Given the extraordinary public interest in this deal, the novel legal questions raised by the lawsuit and its resolution, and the repeated calls from lawmakers for transparency, I once again urge the FCC to bring this matter before the full Commission for a vote.”
Under the Paramount-Trump settlement, the $16 million will not be “paid directly or indirectly to President Trump,” according to Paramount. Instead, that money will go toward his presidential library, the company said.
On Wednesday, Warren said she plans to introduce new legislation to “rein in corruption through presidential library donations.”
“This settlement exposes a glaring need for rules to restrict donations to sitting presidents’ libraries,” she said. “I will soon introduce new legislation to rein in corruption through presidential library donations. The Trump administration’s level of sheer corruption is appalling and Paramount should be ashamed of putting its profits over independent journalism.”
In a statement in May responding to the senators’ letter, a White House spokesman said, “Democrats on Capitol Hill are growing increasingly desperate and unhinged by the day, and this latest act of faux outrage reveals the depth of their despair. Anyone who seriously believes the President could be bribed by anyone, especially a liberal and notoriously unreliable institution like Paramount, lacks the intelligence to hold public office.”
