Paramount Global for sale latest - Deadline; David Ellison Says Skydance Has Complied With Anti-Bribery Laws, But Doesn’t Get Into Trump’s Claim Of Side Deal: “We’re Not Going To Politicize Anything Today”

Story from Deadline:

New Paramount CEO David Ellison reiterated that Skydance has complied with all laws, including anti-bribery laws, but did not go into any details of Donald Trump‘s claim that the company agreed to an additional $16 million in PSAs and advertisements as part of a settlement of the president’s lawsuit against CBS News.

“We were not involved in the settlement in any way,” Ellison told reporters on Thursday, just hours after his Skydance completed its merger with Paramount. “We’re basically clear that we comply with all laws, including anti-bribery law.”

Press further on whether Skydance made a deal with Trump for free airtime, Ellison said, “We’re not going to politicize anything today. I’m not going to do that today.”

Last month, pre-merger Paramount settled Trump’s lawsuit over the way that CBS News‘ 60 Minutes edited an interview with Kamala Harris. Paramount agreed to pay $16 million, to go to Trump’s future presidential library, but Trump later claimed that the sum was higher, with an additional $16 million in PSAs and ads. The president later said that they “anticipate receiving $20 Million Dollars more from the new Owners, in Advertising, PSAs, or similar Programming, for a total of over $36 Million Dollars.”

Paramount denied that the settlement included such advertising commitments and that it had “no knowledge” of promises or commitments made to Trump outside of their settlement.

That led to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and other Senate Democrats to press Ellison on whether Skydance agreed to any “side deal” arrangement to Trump to provide PSA airtime or advertising. In a letter to the senators last week, Skydance’s general counsel, Stephanie Kyoko McKinnon, said that the company “has fully complied with all applicable laws, including our nation’s anti-bribery laws,” something that Ellison echoed on Thursday. Warren has continued to press the issue of a side deal, characterizing the Skydance response as “dodgy” while also calling for an independent investigation.