House Democrats probe Paramount-Skydance merger over Trump dealings

Two top House Democrats are investigating whether Paramount and Skydance Media acquiesced to “illegitimate demands” from President Donald Trump in order to win approval for their $8 billion merger.

“Two wrongs do not make a right,” Reps. Jamie Raskin of Maryland and Frank Pallone of New Jersey wrote to David Ellison, CEO of the newly formed Paramount Skydance Corporation, in a letter obtained by CNBC.

“Illegitimate demands from the [Federal Communications Commission] or the Administration do not absolve your company from wrongdoing,” wrote Raskin and Pallone, the top Democrats on the House Judiciary and Energy committees, respectively.

The FCC blessed the merger in late July, less than a month after Paramount agreed to a $16 million settlement to end Trump’s lawsuit against its subsidiary CBS News over a snippet of a “60 Minutes” interview. The president had claimed the interview was deceptively edited to boost his then-campaign rival, Kamala Harris.

The lawsuit was widely criticized as meritless, including by Paramount, which maintained that the show followed a standard editing process.

“The settlement raises significant concerns that Donald Trump demanded and Paramount paid an illegal bribe—a $16 million payment to the President in exchange for merger approval from the FCC,” the lawmakers’ letter read.

“For both Paramount and Skydance to acquiesce to President Trump’s meritless claims in order to consummate the merger demonstrates an extreme disregard to anything that might stand in the way of profit,” they wrote.

Paramount Skydance did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment on the letter.

The letter, dated Wednesday, gives Paramount two weeks to answer questions and provide a slew of internal materials, including “all related communications involving” Trump, the White House, the FCC and the Trump Organization.

The lawmakers suggest that Paramount and Skydance, through their dealings with Trump, have violated anti-bribery and corruption clauses in the agreements they filed with the FCC.

Raskin and Pallone also noted that Trump, while boasting about the settlement, claimed he also expects to get another $20 million in “Advertising, PSAs, or similar Programming” from the “new Owners.”

News outlets have reported that Skydance sources deny Trump’s assertion. But the House Democrats cite reporting that indicates “there is evidence that you had multiple conversations with the President leading up to the deal being approved by the FCC.”

The reported “side deal” with Trump “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,” they wrote.

“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,” the letter reads.

Raskin and Pallone also point to CBS’ recent cancellation of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” the tentpole talk show whose host, a vocal Trump critic, called Paramount’s settlement a “big fat bribe.”

And they note reporting that Skydance “agreed to make changes to CBS and its editorial practices that align with the Trump Administration’s political agenda” as a condition of the merger.

That includes hiring an ombudsman “to police the news organization’s editorial choices,” which the lawmakers called “a poorly disguised attempt at censoring speech that contradicts the Administration’s ideals.”

At the time the FCC approved the merger, Chairman Brendan Carr said in a statement that Skydance had made “written commitments to ensure that the new company’s programming embodies a diversity of viewpoints from across the political and ideological spectrum.”

Carr added that the approval of the merger marked a step forward in the FCC’s efforts to eliminate DEI efforts.