Trump's lawsuit against CBS expands after release of '60 Minutes' transcript, adds Paramount as defendant

https://www.foxnews.com/media/trumps-lawsuit-against-cbs-expands-after-
release-60-minutes-transcript-adds-paramount-defendant

FIRST ON FOX - President Donald Trump's lawsuit against CBS News was 
expanded following the release of the unedited transcript and raw footage 
of its "60 Minutes" interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris.

According to a Friday filing from Trump's legal team reviewed by Fox News 
Digital, the lawsuit is adding CBS News' parent company Paramount Global 
as a defendant, citing how the "60 Minutes" election special was 
platformed on its Paramount+ streaming service. Additionally, the lawsuit 
is adding Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, as a plaintiff. 

"Representative Jackson is a consumer of broadcast and digital news media 
content in this State, District, and Division, including the broadcast and 
digital news media content from Defendants at issue in this action, and he 
has thus been injured by Defendants’ conduct alleged herein," the amended 
complaint states. 

Trump's attorneys amended its lawsuit to include multiple excerpts from 
the unedited transcript in hopes of bolstering their case that CBS News 
withheld unflattering exchanges in order to help the Democratic nominee. 

"Once Defendants finally released the unedited version of the Interview, 
it became apparent that they had engaged in gross broadcast distortion 
cover-up and manipulated not only Harris’s Reply about Prime Minister 
Netanyahu, but the Interview in its entirety," the filing states.

For example, in one of the exchanges highlighted from the unedited 
transcript, "60 Minutes" correspondent Bill Whitaker pressed Harris on how 
the number of border crossings had "quadrupled" in the first three years 
of the Biden administration. Harris provided another "word salad answer," 
Trump's attorneys argued.

"There are a variety of factors that relate to what we have seen globally, 
and what we are not immune from at our own border in terms of what we have 
seen in terms of the surge of immigration and irregular migration," Harris 
told Whitaker. "And there are solutions at hand, but we’ve got to have 
leaders who are solution-oriented, which we've been and are, and I am 
going forward, instead of leaders who want to make it a problem they can 
run on."

Trump's attorneys also have filed a FOIA request to the Federal 
Communications Commission (FCC) to obtain all records pertaining to his 
lawsuit against CBS News, including from Biden-era FCC chair Jessica 
Rosenworcel. 

Neither CBS News nor Paramount Global immediately responded to Fox News 
Digital's request for comment. 

On Wednesday, the FCC released the raw transcript and footage handed over 
by CBS News, which showed CBS News had aired only the first half of 
Harris' response to Whitaker's question about Israeli Prime Minister 
Benjamin Netanyahu not "listening" to the Biden administration in a 
preview clip that aired on "Face the Nation," but aired only the second 
half of her response during the primetime special. 

"But it seems that Prime Minister Netanyahu is not listening," Whitaker 
said in the October 2024 interview. "The Wall Street Journal said that he— 
that your administration has repeatedly been blindsided by Netanyahu, and 
in fact, he has rebuffed just about all of your administration's 
entreaties."

"Well, Bill, the work that we have done has resulted in a number of 
movements in that region by Israel that were very much prompted by, or a 
result of many things, including our advocacy for what needs to happen in 
the region. And we're not going to stop doing that. We are not going to 
stop pursuing what is necessary for the United States to be clear about 
where we stand on the need for this war to end," Harris responded.

New FCC chair Brendan Carr ordered CBS News to hand over the unedited 
transcript as part of its investigation into whether the network violated 
the FCC's "news distortion" policy after a complaint was filed.

In the preview clip that aired on "Face the Nation," Harris was asked why 
it seemed like Netanyahu wasn’t listening to the U.S. 

"Well, Bill, the work that we have done has resulted in a number of 
movements in that region by Israel that were very much prompted by, or a 
result of, many things, including our advocacy for what needs to happen in 
the region," Harris responded in the "Face the Nation" clip. 

Harris was mocked by conservatives for offering a lengthy "word salad" to 
Whitaker. But when that same question aired the following night in the 
primetime election special, a shorter, more focused answer from the vice 
president followed.

"We are not going to stop pursuing what is necessary for the United States 
to be clear about where we stand on the need for this war to end," Harris 
said in the primetime special. 

Critics accused CBS News of editing Harris' "word salad" answer to shield 
the vice president from further backlash, and there were calls for the 
network to release the full transcript after it only shared transcripts of 
what had aired. CBS News refused to release the raw transcript at the 
time.

Carr said it's "hard to explain" CBS News' conduct. 

"On the one hand, CBS immediately released the unredacted transcript of a 
recent interview with Vice President Vance. Yet for months they refused to 
release the one with Vice President Harris," Carr told Fox News Digital. 

Carr referred to CBS News releasing the transcript of "Face the Nation" 
anchor Margaret Brennan's interview with Vice President JD Vance last 
month.

"The FCC has now opened up a proceeding and is seeking public comment on 
the News Distortion complaint. Transparency here is important. The FCC’s 
review will continue, and we look forward to the public’s feedback," Carr 
added. 

In October, Trump filed a $10 billion lawsuit against CBS News alleging 
election interference over its handling of the "60 Minutes" interview, 
accusing the network of aiding his Democratic rival through deceptive 
editing just days before the election. 

"To paper over Kamala’s ‘word salad’ weakness, CBS used its national 
platform on 60 Minutes to cross the line from the exercise of judgment in 
reporting to deceitful, deceptive manipulation of news," the lawsuit 
stated.

Trump attorneys argued the edits were done in an effort to "attempt to tip 
the scales in favor of the Democratic Party as the heated 2024 
Presidential Election — which President Trump is leading — approaches its 
conclusion."

"CBS’ partisan and unlawful acts of election and voter interference 
through malicious, deceptive, and substantial news distortion calculated 
to confuse, deceive, and mislead the public," the lawsuit read. 

CBS parent company Paramount Global is reportedly considering settling the 
suit ahead of a planned merger with Skydance Media in hopes of preventing 
potential retribution by Trump's FCC, which has the authority to halt the 
multibillion-dollar transaction. Shari Redstone, Paramount’s controlling 
shareholder, is reportedly in favor of settling with the president. 

Conversation

Riverwind
8 February, 2025

CBS should be dismantled and its federal communications license needs to 
be pulled permanently. This was willfully done to swing an election. Those 
involved should be prosecuted for election interference. 


-- 
November 5, 2024 - Congratulations President Donald Trump.  We look 
forward to America being great again.

The disease known as Kamala Harris has been effectively treated and 
eradicated.

We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that 
stupid people won't be offended.

Durham Report: The FBI has an integrity problem.  It has none.

Thank you for cleaning up the disaster of the 2008-2017 Obama / Biden 
fiasco, President Trump.  

Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the 
The World According To Garp.  Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood 
queer liberal democrat donors.