Letitia James Pressed by Writers To Investigate Stephen Colbert Show’s Cancellation as a ‘Bribe’ To Appease Trump

The invitation to New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, from the Writers Guild of America to investigate the cancellation of “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” could present an opportunity for the prosecutor to gain an advantage in her clash with President Trump.The guild, which represents film and television writers and is one of the most powerful unions in the media business, declared in a statement that its membership harbors “significant concerns that ‘The Late Show’s’ cancellation is a bribe, sacrificing free speech to curry favor with the Trump Administration as the company looks for merger approval.” Paramount contends that the show was canceled for “financial reasons” in the wake of tumbling viewership and revenues.The guild — whose members include writers on Mr. Colbert’s show, who are likely to be laid off as soon as “The Late Show” stops producing new episodes — argues, “Cancellations are part of the business, but a corporation terminating a show in bad faith due to explicit or implicit political pressure is dangerous and unacceptable in a democratic society.” Mr. Trump, who late last year called for Mr. Colbert’s contract to be “terminated,” took to Truth Social last week to celebrate, crowing, “I absolutely love that Colbert’ got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings.”Mr. Colbert has been attacking Mr. Trump regularly on-air for the last 10 years, and has also hosted some of Mr. Trump’s foes, like Senator Schiff and a former FBI director, James Comey. Just a day before the cancellation was announced, Mr. Colbert had referred to Paramount’s $16 million settlement with the 47th president as a “big fat bribe,” though CBS insists that the cancellation is “not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.” The guest on Thursday’s show – the night Mr. Colbert announced his cancellation — was Mr. Schiff. The guild wants Ms. James, whom it calls “no stranger to prosecuting Trump for illegal business practices,” to “launch an investigation into potential wrongdoing at Paramount.” The broader context for the cancellation of the comic’s show is a long-brewing merger between CBS’s parent, Paramount Global, and a media company, Skydance Media, controlled by the scion, David, of the Ellison family fortune. Corporate consummation of this particular deal, which involves the handover of an over-the-air broadcast license, requires federal approval, which Paramount’s senior executives reportedly believed was tied to the outcome of Mr. Trump’s lawsuit against CBS News’s “60 Minutes.” The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, denies that linkage.Mr. Trump demanded $20 billion for deceptive editing of an interview with Vice President Harris during the campaign, which he argued tipped “the scales in favour of the Democratic party.” Earlier this month Paramount agreed to settle the case for $16 million, though CBS had previously reckoned that the case was “completely without merit.” Paramount claims that the “lawsuit is completely separate from, and unrelated to, the Skydance transaction and the FCC approval process.” Mr. Ellison met last week at Washington with Mr. Carr. Skydance issued a statement that the two “discussed Skydance’s commitment to unbiased journalism and its embrace of diverse viewpoints, principles that will ensure CBS’s editorial decision-making reflects the varied ideological perspectives of American viewers.” Senator Warren amplified Mr. Colbert’s assessment that the settlement amounts to a bribe and linked it to the fate of the show, writing on X that “CBS canceled Colbert’s show just THREE DAYS after Colbert called out CBS parent company Paramount for its $16M settlement with Trump — a deal that looks like bribery.”Now the Writers Guild is asking Ms. James to make the same determination. The plea to the prosecutor comes as she is under investigation by Mr. Trump’s Department of Justice for allegedly furnishing false information on real estate documents to obtain better loan terms. She is accused of listing a Norfolk home as her primary residence despite being obligated by law to live in New York, listing her father as her husband on a mortgage document, and misstating the number of rooms in a Brooklyn residence.Ms. James’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, calls those accusations “threadbare” and “cherry-picked” and reckons that they amount to the program for Mr. Trump’s “revenge tour” against New York’s top law enforcement official. A group, America First Legal, affiliated with one of Mr. Trump’s senior advisers, Stephen Miller, is trying to get Ms. James’s law license revoked for the alleged fraud.Last week, the director of the United Federal Housing Finance Agency, William Pulte, the Pulte Homes heir, made a criminal referral of Mr. Schiff to the justice department, also for allegedly lying on a mortgage application. Mr. Trump this weekend called for Mr. Schiff to “pay the price of prison.” Mr. Pulte referred Ms. James to the DOJ for prosecution.The probe into Ms. James’s past by Mr. Trump’s DOJ comes after the New York attorney general secured a fraud verdict in civil litigation against the 47th president for $450 million, which after the accrual of interest now stands at more than $500 million. There were other punitive terms imposed by Judge Arthur Engoron, as well. An appeals court sounded skeptical of that ruling, but some 300 days later there is still no word as to the fate of that judgment.

Letitia James Pressed by Writers To Investigate Stephen Colbert Show’s Cancellation as a ‘Bribe’ To Appease Trump

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