Senators Beg Paramount Boss Shari Redstone Not to Cave to Trump in ’60 Minutes’ Lawsuit

A group of Senators are urging Paramount boss Shari Redstone not to settle President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against CBS over an interview 60 Minutes conducted with former Vice President Kamala Harris last October.

In a letter sent to Redstone Wednesday (which was reported on by The New York Times), nine left-leaning Senators — including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) — pleaded with Redstone to hold the line.

“This lawsuit is an attack on the United States Constitution and the First Amendment,” the senators wrote. “It has absolutely no merit and it cannot stand.”

“In the United States of America, presidents do not get to punish or censor the media for criticizing them. Freedom of the press is what sets us apart from tin-pot dictatorships and authoritarian regimes,” continued the legislators.

Despite legal scholars widely considering Trump’s lawsuit to be frivolous, Redstone’s desire to sell Paramount to Skydance Media is thought to be driving settlement talks — as the massive deal would require the approval of the Trump administration’s FCC. The senators argued that giving in to Trump would ultimately not get him to back off.

“In our view, [a settlement] would be a grave mistake,” the senators wrote, adding: “Rewarding Trump with tens of millions of dollars for filing this bogus lawsuit will not cause him to back down on his war against the media and a free press. It will only embolden him to shakedown, extort and silence CBS and other media outlets who have the courage to report about issues Trump may not like.”

The letter’s other signatories were; Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT), Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA).