Executives at CBS and its parent company, Paramount Global, are defending the decision to settle President Trump’s $20 billion lawsuit, saying it was done to avoid the “unpredictable cost of a legal defense,” not to try to secure approval of its crucial merger with Skydance.

Mr. Trump sued CBS in October over the editing of Vice President Harris’s “60 Minutes” interview. Paramount and attorneys for Mr. Trump announced a settlement in principle late Tuesday. Under the terms of the deal, Paramount will pay $16 million for Mr. Trump’s future presidential library, and “60 Minutes” will commit to releasing transcripts of interviews with presidential candidates. However, the president will not be getting his long-sought apology for the editing, which his lawyers said caused “mental anguish.”

Paramount is also disputing reports — by Fox News and the Washington Free Beacon — that there is an understanding with Paramount and Skydance that after the merger closes, the company will donate eight-figures’ worth of advertising and promotions devoted to causes of interest to conservatives.

The announced settlement coincided with Paramount’s annual shareholder meeting, which kicked off on Wednesday. A  co-executive of Paramount, George Cheeks, who oversees CBS and is expected to remain in power after the closure of the merger, was asked about the decision. 

“The company has agreed in principle to settle the lawsuit, and as reported, it does not include an apology,” Mr. Cheeks told shareholders.

Addressing the reasoning for the settlement, he said companies “often settle to avoid the high and somewhat unpredictable cost of legal defense, the risk of an adverse judgment that could result in significant financial as well as reputational damage, and the disruption to business operations that prolonged legal battles can cause.”

The president of CBS News, Tom Cibrowski, who’s been overseeing the news division after the ouster of the CBS News and Stations CEO, Wendy McMahon, reportedly addressed the settlement during the network’s morning editorial meeting on Wednesday and emphasized that the company did not apologize for the Harris interview. He also thanked the staff for “blocking out the noise.”

The president of CBS News has traditionally had little to no meaningful oversight of “60 Minutes,” which functions independently. That could potentially change with the merger’s closure, if Skydance decides to crack down on the program and compel it to be fairer in its programming. 

Mr. Trump and critics of CBS News argue that how “60 Minutes” edited the Harris interview was malicious toward Mr. Trump, as it made Ms. Harris’s answer sound more coherent at a time when she was facing scrutiny about her ability to speak clearly about important issues. Yet, while Paramount and CBS executives defended the decision to settle, legal scholars and journalists insisted that “60 Minutes” had not crossed any lines by removing a portion of Ms. Harris’s answer to a question about Israel. CBS’s lawyers and others repeatedly derided the lawsuit as “meritless.”  

In fact, Mr. Trump and CBS News largely agreed on their characterization of the interview, both saying it was edited for concision and clarity. Mr. Trump, however, said this editing was inappropriate in that it created a false impression of a candidate who could express herself cogently and successfully complete a real interview with a journalist. CBS says the editing is standard practice. 

Multiple reports indicated that Paramount executives believed that a settlement was the key to the Federal Communications Commission giving the green light to its merger with Skydance Media. The Trump-appointed chairman of the commission, Brendan Carr, and Paramount have insisted the lawsuit is unrelated to the Skydance deal.

Lawmakers, journalists, and legal observers were quick to suggest that the Paramount executives decided against fighting the lawsuit in court to try to grease the wheels for the FCC to approve the Skydance deal.

Senator Wyden, who previously warned that a settlement might violate federal anti-bribery laws, said in a post on Bluesky, “Paramount just paid Trump a bribe for merger approval. When Democrats retake power, I’ll be first in line calling for federal charges.”

He added that “state prosecutors should make corporate execs who sold out our democracy answer in court.”

Senator Sanders said in a statement that it is “pretty obvious why Paramount chose to surrender to Trump.”

“The Redstone family is in line to receive $2.4 billion from the sale of Paramount to Skydance, but they can only receive this money if the Trump administration approves this deal. In other words, the Redstone family diminished the freedom of the press today in exchange for a $2.4 billion payday,” Mr. Sanders said. “Paramount’s decision will only embolden Trump to continue attacking, suing, and intimidating the media, which he has labeled ‘the enemy of the people.’ It is a dark day for independent journalism.”

In May, Mr. Sanders and eight other senators sent a letter to Paramount’s board saying a settlement would be “a grave mistake” and urged the company to “stand up for freedom of the press and our democracy.”

The settlement also received criticism from an FCC commissioner appointed by President Biden, Anna Gomez, who called the agreement a “desperate move to appease the administration and secure regulatory approval of a major transaction currently pending before the FCC.”

“Instead of standing on principle, Paramount opted for a payout. That decision now casts a long shadow over the integrity of the transaction pending before the FCC. Given the extraordinary public interest in this deal … I once again urge the FCC to bring this matter before the full commission for a vote,” she said. 

Other press organizations have spoken out about the settlement. The head of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, Jameel Jaffer, said in a statement that Paramount “should have fought this extortionate lawsuit in court.”

“Now Trump’s presidential library will be a permanent monument to Paramount’s surrender, a continual reminder of its failure to defend freedoms that are essential to our democracy,” Mr. Jaffer said. 

The Freedom of the Press Foundation, a Paramount shareholder that has vowed to sue over the settlement, said the agreement is an “insult to the First Amendment and to the journalists and viewers of ‘60 Minutes.”

By Wednesday afternoon, there had been some indication that the staff at CBS News was displeased with the settlement. Deadline quoted an unnamed staffer who said, “People are not surprised but also disappointed.”

“There is hope that if the Skydance deal goes through, that could be a fresh start,” the staffer said.

It remains to be seen how the main talent at CBS will respond to the deal. Some of the stars of “60 Minutes” have previously publicly voiced their disagreement with the idea of a settlement. Scott Pelley told CNN’s Anderson Cooper, who is also a “60 Minutes” correspondent, that he believes a settlement would be “very damaging” to CBS and Paramount. 

A liberal media journalist, Oliver Darcy, reported that all seven of the correspondents of the newsmagazine program sent a letter to executives at Paramount, warning that a settlement would leave a “shameful stain and undermine the First Amendment.”

While the stars made their views of a settlement known ahead of the deal, it remains to be seen whether they will resign in protest or continue to work for the company, which they said had undermined the First Amendment.