Trump Reportedly Rejects $15 Million Offer to Settle Absurd 60 Minutes Lawsuit

AP Photo/Alex Brandon

President Donald Trump has rejected a settlement offer of $15 million from Paramount after he sued the company over a 60 Minutes interview last year with then-Vice President Kamala Harris.

The Wall Street Journal broke the news of the offer on Wednesday.

CBS aired two different parts of a response that Harris – then the Democratic presidential nominee – gave to a question. One part of the response was in a teaser for the show, and the other was aired on the show itself.

Legal experts have widely mocked the suit as meritless, but Shari Redstone, who controls Paramount and its subsidiary CBS News, is looking to sell the company to Skydance Media, which is owned by Oracle founder Larry Ellison. That massive transaction would have to be approved by the Federal Communications Commission, which is run by Trump loyalists.

The Journal reported:

Paramount Global in recent days has offered $15 million to settle, according to people familiar with the situation. Trump’s team wants more than $25 million and is also seeking an apology from CBS News, one of the people said.

Trump’s team has threatened another lawsuit against CBS related to alleged bias of its news coverage, according to the people. Wednesday is the deadline for Trump to respond to Paramount’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

The publication further reported that Redstone had recused herself from the negotiations.

Last month, longtime 60 Minutes producer Bill Owens resigned and said in a memo to staff that the program no longer enjoyed editorial independence from corporate.

The lawsuit is just the latest a string of litigation Trump has brought against media companies. In December, ABC settled a defamation lawsuit by giving $15 million to Trump’s presidential foundation and issuing an apology. Trump has also induced settlements from social media companies Meta and X.