Donald Trump was highlighted in a critical segment on Sunday’s episode of 60 Minutes, as CBS and Paramount leaders work to resolve the president’s $20 billion lawsuit.
The concluding 14 minutes of CBS’ core news show criticized Trump over his attempts to target law firms who have opposed him using executive orders.
Host Scott Pelley, known for previously making bold statements against his corporate executives, interviewed lawyers and went so far as to label Trump the ‘first felon in the Oval Office.’
The network and its parent company is facing its own legal battle with the president, who claims the 60 Minutes deceptively edited an October interview with Vice President Kamala Harris in order to make her look more presidential.
CBS and Paramount Global are also facing a probe by the Federal Communications Commission into whether the interview violated ‘news distortion’ rules.
It comes as executives at Paramount are trying to push through their high-stakes $8.4 billion merger with Skydance Media – which the FCC must approve.
They have been trying to broker a settlement with Trump’s lawyers – and Paramount owner Shari Redstone even reportedly asked CBS News’ chief executive if it were possible to delay running sensitive stories about the president on 60 Minutes amid the merger discussions.
60 Minutes has clearly ignored the memo, as evident by the segment on Sunday.
60 Minutes decided to provoke President Donald Trump with a scathing segment on Sunday
The newsmagazine spent the last 14 minutes of its program Sunday night hitting out at Trump for his efforts to target law firms that have been critical of him with executive orders
It started with Pelley admitting it was ‘nearly impossible to get anyone on camera’ to speak with them about the executive orders Trump levied against the law firms.
He was able to speak with Marc Elias, a former Perkins Cole partner and a top lawyer for Democrats, who called Trump’s executive orders an assault on the entire legal profession.
‘Donald Trump is the walking embodiment of everything that is wrong with the American political system,’ Elias declared.
‘And so when Donald Trump says that I am unethical or that I am undermining his vision of America, I say, “Boy I must be doin’ something right.’
He then went on to compare the commander-in-chief to a mob boss who is intimidating people in a neighborhood.
‘The fact is that these law firms are being told, “If you don’t play ball with us, maybe something really bad will happen to you,”‘ said Elias – who first crossed Trump in 2016 when he served as the top lawyer for the Hillary Clinton campaign and then again in 2020 when he defeated Trump’s efforts to contest the election results in court.
Perkins Cole, his former firm, has now been accused of ‘unlawful or unsavory practices’ due to its connections to investigations related to President Trump or his allies.
A federal judge permanently blocked the executive order against the law firm last week, calling it ‘unconstitutional retaliation.’
In the segment on Sunday, Marc Elias, a former Perkins Cole partner and a top lawyer for Democrats, called Trump’s executive orders an assault on the entire legal profession
Lawyer Brenna Frey left her law firm after it agreed to conduct free legal work for causes Trump supports
Still, Trump has targeted other law firms that bring immigration lawsuits or other cases against the government that he deems to be unethical.
He directed the Justice Department to seek sanctions against attorneys for professional misconduct and asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to refer such firms to the White House so they can be stripped of security clearances and for federal contracts they worked on to be terminated.
Some law firms have since tried to fight back, suing the Trump administration.
Many others, though, inked settlements with the Trump administration, committing to $600 million in free legal work for causes Trump supports.
The deal cut by five law firms brings Trump’s legal kitty close to $1 billion – and specifies that the work will continue ‘beyond’ the Trump administration.
Among the law firms that have agreed to work with Trump was Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom – the fifth largest law firm in the world.
Its agreement, though, sent lawyer Brenna Frey leaving the firm in protest.
‘The law firm is tacitly saying, “We’ll listen to the administration, we won’t fight in court,”‘ she said of her decision to resign.
‘If we won’t fight over this, what else won’t we fight over in court against the federal government.’
Elias agreed, claiming he is already seeing some law firms refuse ‘to take on certain kinds of clients that might upset the administration or not taking on certain kinds of causes that might put them in the crosshairs of the administration.’
John Keker, a high-profile attorney in San Francisco, went even further – saying the president was engaging in bribery.
‘I’m suggesting that he is violating the rule that says, “You can’t offer a thing of value in return for an official act,”‘ he said. ‘That happens to be the definition of bribery.
‘Anybody else who came to Washington and said, “I will give you $100 million of free legal services if you do this for me” would be convicted of a bribe.’
He added that when the judicial system is afraid to stand up to the country’s executive it becomes a ‘dictatorship’ like China or Russia.
Trump has not yet commented on Sunday’s episode, which came just one week after Pelley hit out at his own bosses at Paramount for trying to secure political favor from the Trump administration.
Shari Redstone, the president of Paramount, reportedly asked CBS News’ chief executive if it were possible to delay running sensitive stories about the president on 60 Minutes amid merger discussions
He spoke out about the sudden resignation of the show’s executive producer, Bill Owens.
‘Bill resigned Tuesday,’ Pelley said last week. ‘It was hard on him and hard on us, but he did it for us – and you,’ Pelley told viewers, before delivering the bombshell.
‘Our parent company, Paramount, is trying to complete a merger. The Trump administration must approve it. Paramount began to supervise our content in new ways.
‘No one here is happy about it.’ Pelley revealed about the extra supervision that corporate leaders are imposing. He also noted how in quitting, Owens proved he was ‘the right person to lead 60 Minutes all along.’
The newscaster went on to make it clear that even though no stories have been blocked outright, Owens believed the creeping corporate oversight had crossed a red line and was undermining the very foundation of journalistic integrity.
‘None of our stories has been blocked,’ Pelley declared, ‘but Bill felt he lost the independence that honest journalism requires. No one here is happy about it.
‘Stories we’ve pursued for 57 years were often controversial, lately the Israel-Gaza war and the Trump administration. Bill made sure they were accurate and fair—he was tough that way.’
60 Minutes’ executive producer, Bill Owens, abruptly resigned last month
Owens, 58, had been with CBS News for decades and served as only the third executive producer in 60 Minutes’ 57-year history since 2019.
In his resignation letter, Owens cited corporate interference as the breaking point, saying it had ‘become clear that I would not be allowed to run the show as I have always run it – to make independent decisions based on what was right for 60 Minutes, right for the audience.’
Owens – a respected figure who recently helped overhaul CBS’s Evening News – went on to promise that ’60 Minutes will continue to cover the new administration,’ and ‘future’ ones as well.
‘The show is too important to the country,’ Owens ultimately declared, weeks after sources told DailyMail.com how the bigwig was ‘feeling the pressure’ brought by the Trump lawsuit.
He reportedly added during a ’60 Minutes’ staff meeting: ‘It’s clear the company is done with me.
‘It has to continue, just not with me as the executive producer,’ Owens said.
The company has not yet addressed the internal revolt, and representatives for the company did not respond to media inquiries following Pelley’s on-air remarks.
