Despite staff resignations and admonishment from lawmakers, CBS News’ parent company Paramount Global has gone ahead and settled with President Donald Trump over his $20 billion lawsuit complaining about a “60 Minutes” episode.

Paramount agreed to pay Trump $16 million in a move that critics have warned could have grave implications for press freedom, empowering the president to exact revenge on media outlets that don’t provide favourable coverage of him.

The settlement also clears up the quarrel ahead of Paramount’s sought-out merger with Skydance Media, which needs approval from the Trump administration.

The funds, with the exception of those covering Trump’s legal fees and costs, will be allocated to a future presidential library, and will not be paid personally to Trump or Representative Ronny Jackson, the plaintiffs in the case.

“Rewarding Trump with tens of millions of dollars for filing this bogus lawsuit will not cause him to back down on his war against the media and a free press,” a group of Democratic senators warned in a joint statement in May. “It will only embolden him to shakedown, extort and silence CBS and other media outlets that have the courage to report about issues that Trump may not like.”

As part of the settlement, Paramount stated that 60 Minutes will release transcripts of interviews that it conducts with US presidential candidates after they’ve aired. It added that this settlement “does not include a statement of apology or regret,” which had previously been a point of........

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