A pair of top House Democrats are launching an investigation into Paramount’s $7 billion merger with fellow media conglomerate Skydance and the circumstances that led to the deal’s approval by the Trump administration, The Hill has learned.
Energy and Commerce Committee ranking member Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.) and Judiciary Committee ranking member Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) sent a letter to Paramount leadership on Wednesday demanding documents, communications and detailed answers regarding the merger’s approval process.
In their letter, which was reviewed by The Hill, the lawmakers expressed concern about “troubling” statements from President Trump indicating that he expects to receive “$20 Million Dollars more from the new Owners, in Advertising, PSAs, or similar Programming, for a total of over $36 Million Dollars.”
Paramount has denied any such agreement with Trump exists and insisted its settlement with the president only includes a $16 million payment to his foundation, which was announced as the deal was struck.
As part of its bid to win Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approval of its deal, Paramount agreed to changes in its editorial practices, which the lawmakers wrote, “align with the Trump Administration’s political agenda,” in addition to ending its corporate diversity policies.
“This offer was necessarily contingent on the FCC approving the deal and does not appear to present any legitimate value to the public, only to President Trump,” Pallone and Raskin wrote in their letter. “Therefore, this appears to be an offer of payment and benefits to a government official designed to achieve a specific outcome from the government — in other words, a bribe.”
Paramount paid its settlement to Trump last month to get the president to drop a high-profile lawsuit he filed against CBS News over a “60 Minutes” interview it aired with former Vice President Kamala Harris last fall.
CBS canceled “The Late Show” with host and Trump critic Stephen Colbert days later, while David Ellison, Paramount’s new chief executive, has spoken openly about ushering a new era catering to more “diverse” viewpoints at the network.
FCC Chair Brendan Carr, before his agency cleared the merger, had blasted CBS News over its coverage of the Trump administration and suggested the Harris “60 Minutes” interview could be grounds for a news distortion complaint, a potential roadblock to the deal’s approval.
David Ellison is the son of tech mogul Larry Ellison, an ally of Trump and one of the richest people in the world.
In the upper chamber, several Democrats, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) have raised alarms about the deal, calling it a major capitulation to Trump’s executive power and a potential violation of federal bribery law.
“If Skydance offered a side deal of up to $20 million worth of or programming to President Trump in order to receive regulatory approval for the merger with Paramount, these actions would run afoul of federal and state anti-bribery statutes,” the lawmakers wrote to David Ellison.
“Similarly, if Paramount forced out CBS’s longtime leaders, spent $16 million to settle a sham lawsuit with President Trump, or cancelled a highly popular comedy show that President Trump dislikes in order to curry favor with the Administration and to receive regulatory approval for the merger with Skydance, these actions would likely further embolden President Trump to use lawsuits and regulatory authority to attack media organizations that he finds objectionable in order to silence them,” they added.
Paramount did not respond to a request for comment on the letter.
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