California Senate Starts Inquiry into Whether Paramount Violated Laws to Gain Advantage

The California state Senate began an inquiry into whether Paramount violated laws against bribery and unfair competition by paying Donald Trump in hope of avoiding his interference in a corporate merger.

Paramount needs federal approval to merge with entertainment company Skydance, a deal Paramount’s controlling shareholder Shari Redstone strongly wants.

Trump’s campaign sued Paramount subsidiary CBS, claiming its lightly edited interview with former Vice President and Presidential candidate Kamala Harris in October 2024 was edited to harm him. At Redstone’s insistence and to the fury of many at CBS, Paramount offered $15 million to settle the lawsuit. Trump rejected it the settlement and threatened the company with further legal action.

Josh Becker who chairs the California State Senate Energy, Utilities & Communications Committee and Thomas Umberg who chairs the Judiciary Committee plan to hold a hearing on the proposed Paramount settlement. They invited former CBS 60 Minutes producer Bill Owens and former CBS News President Wendy McMahon to testify. Both left CBS recently, citing diminishing editorial independence as the reason they felt they could no longer do their work properly.

The inquiry wants to know whether Paramount breached its fiduciary duties to shareholders, misused corporate funds, violated federal anti-bribery laws or violated the state’s Unfair Competition Law.

In their letter inviting Owens and McMahon to testify, the committee chairs wrote:

This inquiry is therefore not only about one company or one lawsuit, but about protecting the integrity of California’s communications economy, ensuring that public-facing media enterprises compete based on content and quality, not influence, capitulation, or political appeasement.

Perhaps even more concerning is the potential chilling effect of Paramount’s settlement on investigative and political journalism. Such a settlement would signal that politically motivated lawsuits can succeed when paired with regulatory threats. It would damage public trust in CBS News and other California-based outlets, diminishing the state’s stature as a national leader in ethical journalism. Paramount’s capitulation would also undermine two essential pillars of a liberal democracy: a free press and an impartial, rule-of-law regulatory system.

Paramount faces threats of legal action from the Freedom of the Press Foundation if it settles with Trump.

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