{"id":7171,"date":"2026-07-16T01:54:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T20:54:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=7171"},"modified":"2026-07-16T01:54:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T20:54:21","slug":"paramount-shareholders-accuse-ellisons-of-illegal-trump-deal-in-4th-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=7171","title":{"rendered":"Paramount Shareholders Accuse Ellisons of \u2018Illegal\u2019 Trump Deal in 4th Lawsuit"},"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<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_5677929\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5677929\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5677929\" src=\"https:\/\/am14.mediaite.com\/med\/cnt\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Untitled-design-2025-11-20T163833-583.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\" \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-5677929\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">(AP Photo\/Evan Vucci, File)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>David<\/strong> and <strong>Larry Ellison<\/strong> were named in a fourth lawsuit filed Tuesday by Paramount shareholders in an attempt to stop an impending merger between the company and Warner Bros. Discovery. The father-son pair was accused of striking a deal with President <strong>Donald Trump<\/strong> based on what the lawsuit called an &#8220;illegal bribery scheme.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In a lawsuit filed in Delaware Chancery Court and reviewed by Mediaite, the shareholders claimed the Ellisons also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/media\/news\/press-freedom-groups-accuse-larry-ellison-of-promising-trump-admin-hed-fire-cnn-anchors-if-he-acquires-warner-bros\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">promised<\/a> widespread changes to CNN to get the merger approved by the president. The deal allegedly also includes a guarantee of up to $20 million in free advertising and an additional $16 million paid to Trump.<\/p>\n<p>The<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberglaw.com\/public\/desktop\/document\/PaulRobbinsderivativelyonbehalfofParamountSkydanceCorpvDavidEllis?doc_id=X1D5TOFV85N9H5AQK53CK3A5RJK\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> suit claims<\/a> that the merger going through &#8220;would allow Paramount fiduciaries to profit from an illegal bribery scheme in breach of their fiduciary duties of loyalty to Paramount and otherwise in violation of bedrock Delaware corporate law.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The media has widely reported that Lawrence and David Ellison promised illegal, private benefits to President Trump in exchange for approval of their last media mega-merger. Specifically, in order to ensure federal regulatory approval of the merger between Ellison-controlled Skydance Media, LLC (\u201cSkydance\u201d) and Paramount, the Ellisons promised President Trump up to $20 million in free advertising and reportedly encouraged Paramount\u2019s prior ownership to settle a frivolous lawsuit the President had filed against CBS (owned by<br \/>\nParamount) in his personal capacity\u2014effectively laundering a $16 million payment to President Trump through the courts,&#8221; added the filing.<\/p>\n<p>The $16 million payment stems from a settlement previously agreed to by the former ownership as part of a lawsuit Trump filed against CBS over a<strong> Kamala Harris<\/strong> interview. The $20 million figure appears to stem from Trump&#8217;s claim that he struck a &#8220;side deal&#8221; with David Ellison soon after the CBS lawsuit was settled and claimed Paramount said the company would &#8220;provide an additional $15 to $20 million worth of advertising to promote causes important to the president.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><em>Variety<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2025\/tv\/news\/trump-unconfirmed-claim-skydance-20-million-advertising-psas-paramount-deal-1236467234\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported<\/a> at the time, July of 2025, &#8220;Trump now claims the settlement over his &#8217;60 Minutes&#8217; lawsuit is worth &#8216;over $36 million&#8217; in total. Earlier this month, he told reporters that the settlement was worth &#8216;like $32 [million] to maybe $35 million.&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Executives at Paramount were under the belief that settling President Trump\u2019s lawsuit was a prerequisite for the FCC to clear the merger with Skydance and began negotiating a high-stakes settlement with President Trump in hopes of clearing the path for regulatory approval,&#8221; the lawsuit adds.<\/p>\n<p>David Ellison reportedly &#8220;grew frustrated&#8221; by having to wait for regulatory approval and was spotted with Trump at a UFC event in April 2025\u2014near the same time he allegedly &#8220;called <strong>Barbara Byrne<\/strong>, then a Paramount director, expressing his frustration that the lawsuit had not settled because he was eager for the merger to close.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Paramount announced it would settle Trump&#8217;s lawsuit via a $16 million payment to a future foundation months later in July, despite the fact that &#8220;Paramount Global officials voiced their concerns that such a payment &#8216;could be legally construed as a bribe.&#8217;&#8221; The Trump Library Foundation &#8220;subsequently dissolved,&#8221; and &#8220;the ultimate beneficiary of Paramount\u2019s settlement payment is unclear.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The filing comes after others made by the Attorneys General of twelve states, as well as the Writers Guild of America and Paramount+ subscribers.<\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/media\/news\/paramount-shareholders-accuse-ellisons-of-illegal-trump-deal-in-4th-lawsuit\/\">Paramount Shareholders Accuse Ellisons of \u2018Illegal\u2019 Trump Deal in 4th Lawsuit<\/a> first appeared on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\">Mediaite<\/a>.<\/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>(AP Photo\/Evan Vucci, File) David and Larry Ellison were named in a fourth lawsuit filed Tuesday by Paramount shareholders in an attempt to stop an impending merger between the company and Warner Bros. Discovery. The father-son pair was accused of striking a deal with President Donald Trump based on what the lawsuit called an &#8220;illegal&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7172,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/am14.mediaite.com\/med\/cnt\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Untitled-design-2025-11-20T163833-583.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsweek-trending"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7171","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=7171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}