Paramount Threatened With Shareholder Lawsuit Over Trump Settlement
The Freedom of the Press Foundation is threatening litigation against Paramount Global if it settles a $20 billion lawsuit brought by President Donald Trump over its subsidiary CBS’ news coverage. Settling the lawsuit would damage CBS’ standing as a news organization, said a Thursday letter to Paramount’s board of directors. FPF is a shareholder of Paramount Global, the letter said. The board reportedly made a $15 million settlement offer to Trump recently. “A settlement with President Trump here would constitute a gross breach of the Board’s fiduciary duties to its shareholders, and we believe could violate laws prohibiting bribery of public officials,” the letter said.
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FPF has hired Lowell & Associates Abbe Lowell and former White House ethics czar Norman Eisen to represent it in the matter, it said in a news release. “If Paramount capitulates here, they will be eviscerating perhaps their most precious journalistic assets, CBS News and 60 Minutes, not to mention their own reputation and shareholder value,” Eisen said in the release. FPF Advocacy Director Seth Stern said settling the case would “encourage further shakedowns of news outlets, film studios and others who depend on their First Amendment right to say things Donald Trump might not like.”