Trump’s lawsuit against CBS expands after release of ’60 Minutes’ transcript

FIRST ON FOX – President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against CBS News was expanded following the release of the unedited transcript and raw footage of its “60 Minutes” interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris.

According to a late-Friday filing from Trump’s legal team reviewed by Fox News Digital, the lawsuit is adding CBS News’ parent company Paramount Global as a defendant, citing how the “60 Minutes” election special was platformed on its Paramount+ streaming service. Additionally, the lawsuit is adding Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, as a plaintiff. 

“Representative Jackson is a consumer of broadcast and digital news media content in this State, District, and Division, including the broadcast and digital news media content from Defendants at issue in this action, and he has thus been injured by Defendants’ conduct alleged herein,” the amended complaint states. 

Trump’s attorneys amended its lawsuit to include multiple excerpts from the unedited transcript in hopes of bolstering their case that CBS News withheld unflattering exchanges in order to help the Democratic nominee. 

“Once Defendants finally released the unedited version of the Interview, it became apparent that they had engaged in gross broadcast distortion cover-up and manipulated not only Harris’s Reply about Prime Minister Netanyahu, but the Interview in its entirety,” the filing states.

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For example, in one of the exchanges highlighted from the unedited transcript, “60 Minutes” correspondent Bill Whitaker pressed Harris on how the number of border crossings had “quadrupled” in the first three years of the Biden administration. Harris provided another “word salad answer,” Trump’s attorneys argued.

“There are a variety of factors that relate to what we have seen globally, and what we are not immune from at our own border in terms of what we have seen in terms of the surge of immigration and irregular migration,” Harris told Whitaker. “And there are solutions at hand, but we’ve got to have leaders who are solution-oriented, which we’ve been and are, and I am going forward, instead of leaders who want to make it a problem they can run on.”

Trump’s attorneys also have filed a FOIA request to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to obtain all records pertaining to his lawsuit against CBS News, including from Biden-era FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel. 

Neither CBS News nor Paramount Global immediately responded to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. 

On Wednesday, the FCC released the raw transcript and footage handed over by CBS News, which showed CBS News had aired only the first half of Harris’ response to Whitaker’s question about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not “listening” to the Biden administration in a preview clip that aired on “Face the Nation,” but aired only the second half of her response during the primetime special. 

“But it seems that Prime Minister Netanyahu is not listening,” Whitaker said in the October 2024 interview. “The Wall Street Journal said that he— that your administration has repeatedly been blindsided by Netanyahu, and in fact, he has rebuffed just about all of your administration’s entreaties.”

“Well, Bill, the work that we have done has resulted in a number of movements in that region by Israel that were very much prompted by, or a result of many things, including our advocacy for what needs to happen in the region. And we’re not going to stop doing that. We are not going to stop pursuing what is necessary for the United States to be clear about where we stand on the need for this war to end,” Harris responded.

Trump’s FCC chair Brendan Carr ordered CBS News to hand over the unedited transcript as part of its investigation into whether the network violated the FCC’s “news distortion” policy after a complaint was filed.

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In the preview clip that aired on “Face the Nation,” Harris was asked why it seemed like Netanyahu wasn’t listening to the U.S. 

“Well, Bill, the work that we have done has resulted in a number of movements in that region by Israel that were very much prompted by, or a result of, many things, including our advocacy for what needs to happen in the region,” Harris responded in the “Face the Nation” clip. 

Harris was mocked by conservatives for offering a lengthy “word salad” to Whitaker. But when that same question aired the following night in the primetime election special, a shorter, more focused answer from the vice president followed.

“We are not going to stop pursuing what is necessary for the United States to be clear about where we stand on the need for this war to end,” Harris said in the primetime special. 

Critics accused CBS News of editing Harris’ “word salad” answer to shield the vice president from further backlash, and there were calls for the network to release the full transcript after it only shared transcripts of what had aired. CBS News refused to release the raw transcript at the time.

Carr said it’s “hard to explain” CBS News’ conduct. 

“On the one hand, CBS immediately released the unredacted transcript of a recent interview with Vice President Vance. Yet for months they refused to release the one with Vice President Harris,” Carr told Fox News Digital. 

Carr referred to CBS News releasing the transcript of “Face the Nation” anchor Margaret Brennan’s interview with Vice President JD Vance last month.

“The FCC has now opened up a proceeding and is seeking public comment on the News Distortion complaint. Transparency here is important. The FCC’s review will continue, and we look forward to the public’s feedback,” Carr added. 

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In October, Trump filed a $10 billion lawsuit against CBS News alleging election interference over its handling of the “60 Minutes” interview, accusing the network of aiding his Democratic rival through deceptive editing just days before the election. 

“To paper over Kamala’s ‘word salad’ weakness, CBS used its national platform on 60 Minutes to cross the line from the exercise of judgment in reporting to deceitful, deceptive manipulation of news,” the lawsuit stated.

Trump attorneys argued the edits were done in an effort to “attempt to tip the scales in favor of the Democratic Party as the heated 2024 Presidential Election — which President Trump is leading — approaches its conclusion.”

“CBS’ partisan and unlawful acts of election and voter interference through malicious, deceptive, and substantial news distortion calculated to confuse, deceive, and mislead the public,” the lawsuit read. 

CBS parent company Paramount Global is reportedly considering settling the suit ahead of a planned merger with Skydance Media in hopes of preventing potential retribution by Trump’s FCC, which has the authority to halt the multibillion-dollar transaction. Shari Redstone, Paramount’s controlling shareholder, is reportedly in favor of settling with the president.