Trump Doubles Down on CBS ‘60 Minutes’ Lawsuit, Now Wants $20 Billion
President Trump amended his lawsuit against CBS on Friday, doubling the amount he claims he is owed for “deceptive” editing of a Kamala Harris interview to $20 billion.
Trump sued the network in October, claiming that “60 Minutes” violated the Texas consumer fraud statute when it edited Harris’ answer about the war in Gaza. CBS has sought to throw out the suit, arguing that its editorial decisions are protected by the First Amendment.
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The president amended his complaint on Friday night, adding a new claim for “unfair competition” under the federal Lanham Act. The claim alleges Trump was harmed by CBS’ conduct through his role as an owner of the Truth Social platform.
“President Trump was harmed as a competitor in the news media industry and suffered actual
damages in an amount to be determined upon trial of this action,” the complaint states. As a result of CBS’ editing, the suit alleges, “viewership was improperly diverted to Defendants’ media platforms, resulting in lower consumer engagement, advertising revenues and profits” for Truth Social and Trump’s other media ventures.
CBS released full transcripts and video of its Harris interview earlier this week in response to a demand from the Federal Communications Commission. The transcript shows that CBS used one portion of Harris’ response on “Face the Nation” and a different portion the next day on “60 Minutes.”
The lawsuit argues that the full transcript shows that the entire interview was “manipulated.”
“Defendants’ tampering went way beyond the exchange about Prime Minister Netanyahu,” the suit alleges. “This was a full-blown cover-up of an incompetent candidate in Harris, substantially motivated by commercial gain and rabid partisanship.”
The amended complaint argues that “60 Minutes” deleted other “Harris word salads that made no sense” in addition to the Gaza answer.
The complaint was also amended to address CBS’ arguments in its motion to dismiss. CBS had noted that neither it nor Trump resides in Texas, and therefore there is no reason to litigate the case in Amarillo. If the case is not dismissed, CBS asked to move it to New York.
In response, Trump added Ronny Jackson, the Republican congressman from Amarillo, as a co-plaintiff. The amended complaint alleges that Jackson is, like Trump, a consumer of news who was “deceived and misled” by the “60 Minutes” interview.
The suit alleges that Trump suffered at least $10 billion in damages on the Lanham Act claim, in addition to $10 billion on the original Texas consumer fraud claim. The suit also notes that Jackson sustained unspecified “substantial damages” on the latter claim.
CBS has already argued that the Lanham Act, like the Texas statute, governs only commercial speech, and does not apply to political and editorial speech.
“There can be no serious argument that President Trump’s claim arises out of commercial speech,” the company’s lawyers wrote in their motion to dismiss.
Paramount Global, the parent of CBS, is nevertheless considering a potential settlement with Trump, according to sources familiar with the matter. Trump called this week for CBS’ license to be revoked, and the FCC would have to approve Paramount’s pending merger with Skydance.
Brian Steinberg contributed to this story.
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