Lawyers for President Trump and the parent company of CBS News said in a legal filing Monday that the two sides were “engaged in good faith, advanced, settlement negotiations” over his suit against the company and requested that the court stay its proceedings until Thursday.
Trump’s lawyers have argued that CBS News misleadingly edited a “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris during the 2024 campaign, tipping the scales toward the Democratic Party. CBS News has denied wrongdoing.
The filing is the clearest sign yet that the two sides are nearing a settlement that they have discussed for several months.
The lawsuit, which many legal experts have said was baseless, was viewed by some executives at Paramount, which owns CBS, as a potential hurdle to completing a multibillion-dollar sale of the company to the Hollywood studio Skydance.
Brendan Carr, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, has said that the president’s lawsuit against Paramount was not linked to the F.C.C.’s review of the company’s merger with Skydance. Shari Redstone, Paramount’s controlling shareholder, had told confidants she favors a settlement.
Ms. Redstone has said she wants to avoid a protracted legal war with the president that could cost hundreds of millions of dollars and jeopardize other divisions of Paramount that have business with the government. She has recused herself from boardroom deliberations over the case.
The settlement would be the second major concession to Mr. Trump by a leading American media company. In December, ABC News paid $15 million to settle a lawsuit filed by Mr. Trump over an interview with Representative Nancy Mace, Republican of South Carolina, conducted by George Stephanopoulos.
Separately on Monday, Mr. Trump’s lawyers said he was dropping a similar lawsuit against J. Ann Selzer, a pollster, and The Des Moines Register. He had accused Ms. Selzer of “brazen election interference” for a poll published in The Register shortly before the election that showed Ms. Harris leading in Iowa by three points.
Kitty Bennett contributed reporting
Benjamin Mullin reports for The Times on the major companies behind news and entertainment. Contact him securely on Signal at +1 530-961-3223 or at [email protected].
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