• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, Yesterday

The absurdity of Paramount Global’s negotiations with Trump over his meritless lawsuit against CBS and "60 Minutes" is demonstrated by the news coming out of the mediation process this week.

Attorneys for Trump and CBS parent Paramount Global have been negotiating a settlement with the help of a mediator for about a month. 

According to The Wall Street Journal on Thursday, they are "far apart" on two issues -- money and an apology.

Trump’s lawsuit over an edit the producers of "60 Minutes" made in an interview with Kamala Harris that aired last October is based on Trump’s contention that this tweak amounted to nothing less than CBS’s intention to sway the presidential election.

The claim is ridiculous and so is the amount of money Trump is asking in damages or fines or whatever -- $20 billion.

But now, according to the WSJ, the amounts under discussion are Paramount’s reported offer of $15 million vs. the Trump team’s figure of “more than” $25 million -- a concession of $19.975 billion on the part of Trump’s lawyers.

Their willingness to concede approximately 99.9% of their original demand also underscores the absurdity of the lawsuit. 

As many people do when suing other people, Trump and his lawyers set their monetary demand by picking an outlandish number out of thin air. 

“FAKE LAW!” Trump himself might have written on TruthSocial if someone sued him for $20 billion over nothing.

The other sticking point -- and in some ways a more important one -- is Trump’s demand that Paramount Global, CBS or "60 Minutes" issue an apology for this edit that apparently had no effect whatsoever on the November presidential election in light of the fact that Trump won handily.

It would be bad enough to have to pay somewhere in the neighborhood of $20 million (a total the haggling might finally arrive at) for no reason except to have this lawsuit be over and done with.

But apologizing would be, in effect, an admission that CBS News made a small edit in some video because it wanted to play a part in preventing Donald Trump from winning a second term.

This would be a breach of journalistic ethics and/or journalistic malpractice. While CBS News isn’t perfect, it is doubtful anyone there gave a moment’s thought to the possibility that a small edit would have national consequences on Election Day, which it did not. 

CBS News has already paid a high price stemming from the apology issue -- the resignations of “60 Minutes” executive producer Bill Owens and CBS News President Wendy McMahon, who both quit rather than be put in the position of signing off on this “apology.”

And what about the threat hanging over the whole thing? It has been believed all along that if Paramount does not concede to Trump’s demands in this suit, he will apply the power of the presidency to squash Paramount’s proposed merger deal with Skydance Media.

I’m sure no one on Trump’s legal team has stated outright in the mediation meetings that if Paramount doesn’t acquiesce to the president’s wishes, they can kiss their merger deal good-bye.

But that has been the real sticking point all along. Basically, it’s blackmail.