Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., raised concerns over President Donald Trump’s suspected influence over CBS News after he said Trump “coerced” the network’s editorial decisions in his Nov. 2 “60 Minutes” interview.

In a five-page complaint to the station’s news ombudsman, Kenneth Weinstein, Raskin, a Democrat, cited a full transcript from Trump’s “60 Minutes” interview with Norah O’Donnell that can be found on the CBS News website. In the transcript, O’Donnell questioned Trump on his move to pardon the founder of Binance, Changpeng Zhao, who pleaded guilty to money laundering and whose company struck a $2 billion deal with the Trump’s family cryptocurrency venture.

In the transcript, Trump answered, among other things, that he couldn’t say, that he was not concerned, and that he’d rather not been asked the question. Long-form interviews on “60 Minutes” are edited for broadcast, with full transcripts posted online, but Raskin argued that these particular omissions carried unusual significance. The exchange was omitted from the video versions of the interview, which Raskin said deprive “the public of critical information about President Trump’s obvious pay-to-play pardon scheme and his obvious discomfort.”

In another portion of the transcript, Trump discussed his lawsuit against CBS over what he claimed was favorable editing of then-Vice President Kamala Harris’ “60 Minutes” interview from October 2024. According to the transcript, Trump said, “You don’t have to put this on because I don’t wanna embarrass you,” when discussing the lawsuit. His comments and the exchange regarding the settled lawsuit were also omitted from the edited video interview.

The lawsuit settled and Trump was paid $16 million, but Raskin’s letter to Weinstein connected the settlement and its timing to what he said is Trump’s “direct control over CBS’s editorial decisions” stemming from the payout.

Raskin explained that prior to the settlement, the parent company of CBS, Paramount, was seeking approval from the Federal Communication Commission for a proposed $8.4 billion merger with Skydance Media. The merger, which significantly reshaped Paramount’s future, drew scrutiny because of the company’s financial pressures and the deal’s potential political implications. The merger was delayed until the FCC approved it in July 2025 — three weeks after Paramount settled Trump’s lawsuit.

Following the merger, Bill Owens, the producer of “60 Minutes,” resigned in April 2025, stating that he felt he had “lost independence from corporate.”

In August, Raskin wrote to the CEO of Paramount, David Ellison to express his concerns with the settlement’s timing which he said “raises significant concerns that Donald Trump demanded and Paramount paid an illegal bribe” to Trump in “exchange for merger approval from the FCC.”

Raskin pointed out in his recent letter to Weinstein that a condition of the merger was that “Paramount agreed to install (Weinstein) at the network, evidently as a minder” to ensure more favorable news coverage of Trump.

As a news ombudsman, Weinstein has been tasked with being an internal advocate for the public within the CBS News organization. But in a news release from the House Judiciary Committee’s Democrats regarding Raskin’s letter, Democrats said Weinstein’s appointment marked a “sharp departure from industry norms” and has raised concerns about political supervision of editorial decisions.

“In the old days, broadcast TV controlled its own editing process, but this time-honored free speech paradigm has been replaced by a governmental inside-monitor ‘Ombudsman,’” Raskin wrote.

House Democrats described Weinstein as a former Hudson Institute president and “pro-Trump ideologue with no newsroom background,” and Raskin further criticized the position as a “farcical Orwellian role.”

Raskin requested Weinstein provide:

—A written explanation of the editorial standards he applies in reviewing complaints, including how he defines improper bias versus legitimate editorial judgment, and whether allowing interview subjects to direct editorial decisions violates CBS News standards;

—His assessment of whether President Trump’s requests to CBS to omit portions of his interview violates CBS News’s editorial independence standards;

—His assessment of whether omitting substantive questions about cryptocurrency corruption and conflicts of interest serves the public interest;

—All documents, communications, and editorial guidance provided to 60 Minutes producers regarding the Trump interview, including any input from Paramount executives, CBS corporate leadership, or outside parties.

“The facts here are clear. President Trump directed CBS to edit his own interview after suing the network for editing his opponent’s interview, and CBS complied with his requests and omitted its anchor’s questions about President Trump’s pardons,” Raskin wrote to Weinstein. “This is your opportunity to silence your critics and prove that you will stand up for journalistic integrity by conducting a thorough and transparent investigation into this new and stunning intrusion on editorial independence.”

The White House acknowledged The Baltimore Sun’s request for comment but referred questions to the president’s outside counsel. Paramount did not immediately respond to The Sun’s request for comment.

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