Free Speech For People (FSFP) has formally requested that the Attorneys General of California and New York and the District Attorneys of Manhattan and Los Angeles initiate criminal investigations into Donald Trump’s scheme to obtain millions of dollars from Paramount Global and Skydance Media and to force changes to the news and entertainment content of Paramount subsidiary CBS Broadcasting Inc. In letters to the state and local prosecutors, FSFP attorneys called on them to determine whether Trump, senior administration officials, and Trump’s personal associates violated state laws and, if warranted, to bring criminal charges.

In October 2024, Trump brought a baseless $20 billion lawsuit against Paramount, the company that owns CBS, the producer of the long-running and well-respected current events television show, 60 Minutes. The lawsuit, which claimed that 60 Minutes deceptively edited an interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris, was widely disparaged by the legal community as an unconstitutional effort by Trump to undermine the freedom of the press.

For months, Paramount fought the lawsuit. But Paramount was simultaneously seeking approval from the Federal Communications Commission to merge with Skydance for $8 billion. Trump-appointed FCC chair, Brendan Carr, who in November 2024 stated that he would take the accusations against 60 Minutes into account when deciding whether to approve the merger, withheld FCC approval.

With the FCC approval hanging in the balance, Paramount abruptly pivoted to settle Trump’s baseless 60 Minutes lawsuit, agreeing to pay $16 million towards Trump’s attorney’s fees and to fund his presidential library and purported charitable causes chosen by Trump. Paramount and Skydance also may have taken other actions to secure FCC approval of their merger, including Skydance’s side deal to contribute $20 million to Trump in advertising, public service announcements, or similar programming. CBS also appears to have made abrupt changes to its schedule and content to purge or chill content unfavorable to Trump. CBS shockingly cancelled Stephen Colbert’s popular program, The Late Show, shortly after Colbert derided the settlement on air as “a big fat bribe.” CBS will also now have an ombudsman to investigate complaints of “political bias,” a move that will chill CBS’s journalistic freedom.

As the letters explain, these facts establish grounds to investigate whether the schemes violate state criminal laws—specifically, whether Trump, his personal lawyer Boris Epshteyn, and senior administration officials used the dual threat of a baseless lawsuit and the government’s control over the Paramount-Skydance merger to extort between $16-36 million from the two companies and to coerce Paramount into making consequential changes to its programming and quashing content critical of Trump.

New York and California—states in which both states have offices and operations, and are respectively the headquarters of Paramount and Skydance—criminalize extortion and conspiracy. Broadly, these laws prohibit the wrongful taking of someone’s private property or services, or the wrongful control of their behavior, by instilling fear that the extortionist will cause them harm or damage. The fact that the conduct involves the President of the United States and senior officials in his administration provides no shield against investigation and, where appropriate, prosecution. Extortion-related crimes are not official acts for which a President can claim immunity.

“States should not wait for the Department of Justice (DOJ) to act first,” says Suparna Reddy, Senior Counsel at Free Speech For People.  “While these schemes may also violate federal criminal statutes, the DOJ has been co-opted by Trump and cannot be depended upon to fulfil its obligation to impartially investigate.” 

The DOJ’s abdication of responsibility does not release state and local officials from carrying out their own impartial and fulsome investigations. Indeed, as the letters point out, “[i]f local and state authorities also abdicate their civil and criminal enforcement responsibilities, their citizens will be left at the mercy of the criminal whims of federal officials.”

“Relevant state and local officials of New York and California must fulfill their investigatory obligations to protect their residents, and to launch criminal investigations into those responsible for the extortion of Paramount and Skydance,” says Courtney Hostetler, Legal Director at Free Speech For People. 

Read the letter to New York prosecutors here.

Read the letter to California prosecutors here.