{"id":41669,"date":"2026-08-12T21:34:37","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T16:34:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=41669"},"modified":"2026-08-12T21:34:37","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T16:34:37","slug":"top-house-judiciary-democrat-escalates-scrutiny-of-paramount-merger-in-new-letter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=41669","title":{"rendered":"Top House Judiciary Democrat escalates scrutiny of Paramount merger in new letter"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.politico.com\/67\/2b\/c3466617475284c24c6db0a516c3\/u-s-congress-438-1.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>House Democrats are ramping up their scrutiny of Paramount Skydance\u2019s bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery \u2014 and previewing their plans to crack down on the merger if they win the majority next year.<\/p>\n<p>In <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/f\/?id=0000019f-f6aa-d9b2-a7bf-febfa7740000\" target=\"_blank\">a new letter<\/a> Wednesday, Rep.<a href=\"https:\/\/directory.politicopro.com\/member\/192069\" data-person-id=\"192069\"> Jamie Raskin<\/a> of Maryland \u2014 the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee \u2014 invited Paramount CEO David Ellison to appear for a transcribed interview \u201cto tell Congress and America your story and answer the Committee\u2019s questions about your Donald Trump-enabled shopping spree to consolidate news organizations, movie studios, cable channels and streaming services.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As a member of the minority party, Raskin has no power to force Ellison\u2019s cooperation. A spokesperson for committee Republicans did not immediately return a request for comment about whether they were also interested in hearing from Ellison.<\/p>\n<p>But should Democrats win back control of the House in the midterms, Raskin is expected to become the committee chair, and he would at that time have the power to exercise subpoena authority to compel Ellison\u2019s testimony.<\/p>\n<p>Raskin <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/live-updates\/2026\/08\/11\/congress\/paramount-happy-to-cooperate-with-dems-01034696\" target=\"_blank\">previewed his plans<\/a> to ramp up oversight of the Paramount merger earlier this week, telling POLITICO that the investigation is a \u201cpriority\u201d and that \u201canyone involved should be prepared to answer under oath for their role in this brazen campaign to bend America\u2019s free press to Donald Trump\u2019s political, financial and personal will.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A spokesperson for Paramount did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but Paramount Chief Legal Officer Makan Delrahim, during a California policy summit Tuesday hosted by POLITICO, said the company has been \u201ctransparent\u201d and responsive to lawmaker\u2019s concerns.<\/p>\n<p>In his letter Wednesday, however, Raskin said that Ellison has not responded to four letters Judiciary Democrats have sent over the past year seeking clarity on the proposed $110 billion merger, which has sparked opposition from Democrats worried about antitrust violations, corruption and national security implications.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe House Committee on the Judiciary is committed to scrutinizing how the antitrust laws are being enforced to promote the public interest; how market power abuses may be harming not only competition but consumers, workers, and the public generally; and whether the federal antitrust agencies are successfully promoting free competition and innovation \u2014 or whether they are using their governmental powers to distort the market and undermine freedom of speech and freedom of the press, in violation of the First Amendment,\u201d Raskin wrote.<\/p>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>House Democrats are ramping up their scrutiny of Paramount Skydance\u2019s bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery \u2014 and previewing their plans to crack down on the merger if they win the majority next year. In a new letter Wednesday, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland \u2014 the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee \u2014 invited&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41670,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static.politico.com\/67\/2b\/c3466617475284c24c6db0a516c3\/u-s-congress-438-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}