Two top House Democrats are demanding documents and internal communications related to the federal approval process behind Skydance’s $8 billion acquisition of the media conglomerate Paramount, the parent company of CBS.
Reps. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and Jamie Raskin, D-Md., made the requests in a letter Wednesday to David Ellison, the chief executive of what is now known as the Paramount Skydance Corp.
In the letterPallone and Raskin raised concerns about how Skydance secured approval of the merger from the Federal Communications Commission, the agency that has regulatory oversight of the media industry. The contents of the letter were first reported by The Hill.
The two lawmakers pointed to Paramount’s decision to pay $16 million to settle a lawsuit from President Donald Trump, who alleged that CBS’ “60 Minutes” had deceptively edited an interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris during the 2024 presidential campaign.
CBS denied Trump’s claim. The payment has been designated to go to Trump’s future presidential library.
“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,” Pallone and Raskin wrote in the letter, calling Trump’s lawsuit “meritless.”
Paramount Skydance spokespeople did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment on Pallone and Raskin’s demands.
The White House and the FCC also did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The FCC is chaired by Brendan Carr, a lawyer who was appointed to the role this year by Trump.
Carr’s office has an open investigation into whether CBS engaged in “news distortion” in the presentation of Harris’ interview with “60 Minutes.”
Pallone and Raskin highlighted comments Trump made on his Truth Social platform. The president said he anticipated “receiving $20 Million Dollars more from the new (Paramount) Owners, in Advertising, PSAs, or similar Programming.”
Skydance has denied allegations of bribery from Democratic lawmakers and other critics — including CBS late-night host Stephen Colbert, who blasted the settlement as a “big fat bribe” days before the network announced it was canceling his show.
“Throughout its history and during the review of the proposed acquisition of Paramount, Skydance has fully complied with all applicable laws, including our nation’s anti-bribery laws,” Skydance’s general counsel wrote in a letter to a trio of U.S. senators on July 31.
Pallone and Raskin also took issue with Skydance’s pledge to hire an ombudsman who will review “complaints of bias” at CBS News and the company’s decision to scrap diversity, equity and inclusion programs. The promises were made in a pair of filings to the FCC in July.
“The announcement of onboarding a new ombudsman to ‘root out’ such politicization is a poorly disguised attempt at censoring speech that contradicts the Administration’s ideals,” Pallone and Raskin wrote.
“As part of our mandate to conduct congressional oversight, we will continue to scrutinize the connection between Skydance’s offers made to the President prior to closing the deal, Paramount’s settlement of a sham lawsuit that enriches the President, and regulatory approval of the merger,” the lawmakers added.
Pallone and Raskin closed the letter with requests for various documents and internal communications related to the “60 Minutes” settlement, the merger approval process and other subjects. They asked for responses from Ellison by Sept. 3.
Ellison is the son of Larry Ellison, the billionaire tech magnate and Trump ally who co-founded the Oracle Corp. (David Ellison donated $929,600 to former President Joe Biden’s re-election bid, according to Federal Election Commission records.)
