Democratic senators warn Shari Redstone Setting Trump’s “60 -minute” trial could be criminal corruption
Democratic senators Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Ron Wyden warned Shari Redstone on Tuesday that settle the Donald Trump trial “60 minutes” in order to win the approval of the merger of paramount with the Skydance media could violate the anti-corruption federal laws.
In a letter sent to Redstone Tuesday morning and reported for the first time by the Wall Street Journal, the trio said they were concerned “Paramount seems to try to settle a lawsuit which he had evaluated as” completely without merit “and moderate the content of his programs in order to obtain the approval of this merger”.
“Under the Federal Corruption Act, it is illegal to give corrupt anything to the civil servants to influence an official act,” continued the letter. “If Paramount officials make these concessions in an arrangement of the counterpart to influence President Trump or other administration officials, they could break the law.”
Read the complete letter here.
The Senators’ letter noted that Paramount Global had previously rejected the trial as “completely without merit” and promised to “defend itself vigorously”.
Then, they asked to redstone tackle several related questions, among which if it still believes that the case is baseless, if it or other business leaders have discussed the installation in order to smooth things for the merger, the company has forced modifications to the programming of CBS News with this spirit, and if such changes come.
The senators also wanted to know that Paramount has policies of compliance with federal laws against public corruption and if it has planned other concessions to Trump.
Senators have cited as proof of their concerns, the growing tumult of CBS News, which was indeed in conflict with his parent company since Trump was elected for a second term. This included the resignation of the president of CBS News, Wendy McMahon, who left Monday after 2 years of work.
“It has become clear to the company and I do not agree on the way to follow,” McMahon told employees, capping a mandate that has seen increasing interference and public criticism from Redstone.
She followed the former executive producer “60 minutes” Bill Owens, who resigned in April, saying at the time that “my” 60 -minute “priorities have always been clear. Maybe not smart, but clear. In recent months, it has also become clear that I would not be allowed to perform the show because I have always executed it. »»
Trump continues CBS News and Paramount Global for $ 20 billion compared to the “60 -minute” interview with Kamala Harris last year, an expert trial called “simulation”. Trump found the issue of having misleadiously modified this interview. Since taking office, Trump’s FCC has also opened an investigation.
The letter occurs a day after Sanders, separately, urged Redstone to “not capitulate Trump’s attack on a free press”. Sanders and Warren were also signatories of a letter sent on May 7 exhoring Redstone to fight the trial.
