Updated on Feb. 5 at 4:30 p.m. ET
CBS News has publicly released an unedited transcript of its 60 Minutes interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris that it previously provided to the Federal Communications Commission. The move follows reports that the network’s parent company, Paramount Global, is seeking to settle a legal case brought by President Donald Trump about the October interview between Harris and Bill Whitaker.
The New York Times first reported news of the settlement on Friday. TVNewser reached out to CBS News for comment, but none was received at press time.
On Monday, 60 Minutes executive producer Bill Owens reportedly told the show’s staff that the network would comply with the FCC’s request. He also emphasized that he would not be offering an apology as part of any potential settlement.
“There have been reports in the media about a settlement and/or apology,” Owens remarked, per New York Times sources. “The company knows I will not apologize for anything we have done.”
On Wednesday, 60 Minutes made the transcript and video requested by the FCC available on its website. “They show—consistent with 60 Minutes’ repeated assurances to the public—that the 60 Minutes broadcast was not doctored or deceitful,” the post read.
Last December, ABC News settled its own lawsuit with Trump for $15 million over comments that anchor George Stephanopoulos made on a March 10 edition of his Sunday show. As part of the settlement, the network included an editor’s note in the online article accompanying the broadcast that reads: “ABC News and George Stephanopoulos regret statements regarding President Donald J. Trump made during an interview by George Stephanopoulos with Rep. Nancy Mace on ABC’s This Week on March 10, 2024.”
Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit alleges that CBS News engaged in “deceitful” editing with its Harris interview. During the conversation with Whitaker, the vice president provided an extensive answer that the network aired different portions of on 60 Minutes and its Sunday morning show, Face the Nation.
“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,” Trump’s legal team alleged in their filing.
Last week, Brendan Carr—the Trump-appointed head of the FCC—lodged an official request for the unedited transcript of the interview as well as the 60 Minutes camera feeds. “We are working to comply with that inquiry as we are legally compelled to do,” a CBS News spokesman told the Times on Friday.
But some legal experts question whether CBS News needed to comply with the Carr’s request. Speaking with CNN’s Brian Stelter in his Reliable Sources newsletter, University of Minnesota associate professor of media law Christopher Terry said that the network “rolled over” by providing the F.C.C. with the transcript and video feeds.