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Left: President Donald Trump on “Meet the Press” Sunday, Dec. 8, 2024 (NBC News/YouTube). Right: Then-Vice President Kamala Harris interviewed on “60 Minutes” in a video posted Oct. 7, 2024 (60 Minutes/YouTube).
President Donald Trump is refusing to produce relevant evidence in his $20 billion lawsuit against CBS, the network’s attorneys say.
In a 23-page motion to compel, CBS alleges Trump and his co-plaintiff, Rep. Ronny Jackson, a Republican from Texas, have shirked their discovery obligations despite a court-ordered due date last month.
Meanwhile the network, and co-defendant Paramount Global, have complied with their own discovery obligations, the motion claims.
“Despite their insistence that discovery move forward, Plaintiffs have shown very little desire to produce their own documents, relying on unfounded objections and delay tactics,” the motion to compel reads.
The locus of the discovery dispute gets to the heart of the lawsuit itself, according to the media defendants.
In the underlying litigation, Trump is claiming massive money damages; Jackson, for his part, is claiming “substantial damages” which he insists he will prove during a trial. In neither case, however, will the plaintiffs provide documents backing up their claimed losses, CBS says.
“Despite the size of their requested damages award, both President Trump and Representative Jackson have refused to produce evidence substantiating their damages during fact discovery,” the motion reads. “In particular, President Trump refuses to produce information about the holdings of the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust, the vehicle which received 114,750,000 shares of Trump Media & Technology Group stock, which forms the basis of President Trump’s alleged damages.”
Additionally, the defendants say Trump “has refused” to provide any information whatsoever about “the other media holdings” referred to in the lawsuit — despite these additional alleged holdings forming the basis of the competitive injury claim that doubled Trump’s purported damages; the lawsuit was originally only for $10 billion.
“If Plaintiffs continue to refuse to produce these obviously relevant documents, Defendants will be significantly prejudiced in their ability to rebut Plaintiffs’ claims,” the CBS motion complains.
Not merely complaining, however, the defendants say the plaintiffs were supposed to respond to a series of document requests keyed toward teasing out the basis of the pleaded damages — by March 19.
That deadline whooshed by, CBS says. But, Trump and Jackson knew they would not meet the deadline and asked, in advance, for an extra two days to get their affairs in order. The media defendants agreed but were none too pleased with what they received on March 21.
“The Responses contained a number of inappropriate and inapplicable objections,” the motion to compel alleges.
Now, the defendants are asking the court to step in and order the plaintiffs to prove up and justify the would-be financial harms they allegedly suffered because of an October 2024 “60 Minutes” interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris.
Among those excuses for declining to turn over the requested documents, Trump and Jackson claim executive privilege, congressional privilege, and “the preservation of national security.” The plaintiffs also say some requests are untimely or irrelevant.
CBS, in turn, broadly rubbished those excuses — with particular emphasis on the privilege claims because Trump was not in office at the time of the broadcast and the discovery requests are not about Jackson’s “activities as a legislator,” according to the motion.
“[W]hile President Trump and Representative Jackson have indicated that they will produce documents responsive to the majority of these Requests, this does not cure their erroneous claims of privilege,” the media defendants allege in a footnote.
The motion also reserves some particular venom for the notion that one of the discovery questions is a national security issue.
From the filing, at length:
President Trump and Representative Jackson’s claim that revealing their whereabouts five months ago — when President Trump was not even in office — could somehow compromise national security rings hollow. But even if there were any legitimate basis not to reveal their whereabouts in October 2024, Defendants have offered that Plaintiffs may simply aver whether or not they were in Texas during the dates of the Broadcast. Plaintiffs have not yet agreed to that compromise.
The companies sketch out a timeline of alleged silence and stonewalling since objections were raised to the discovery requests.
On March 24, attorneys for the plaintiffs and defendants held a “meet-and-confer” that dealt with discovery issues, according to the motion. During that meeting, the media companies asked if the plaintiffs would be sticking to their “executive privilege” claims. CBS says Trump’s legal team did not have much to offer due to lack of preparation.
“Plaintiffs’ counsel indicated that they would work to hopefully resolve these issues and observed that he wanted to preserve objections because Plaintiffs’ counsel had not yet reviewed his clients’ documents,” the motion reads.
On March 27, CBS’ lawyers sent a letter to Trump’s lawyers reiterating their questions about the “executive privilege” claims, according to the motion. That letter allegedly went unanswered.
On April 4, the parties held another meet-and-confer to discuss the outstanding discovery issues. The end result was essentially the same, according to CBS.
“Defendants stressed to Plaintiffs that Defendants were seeking to preserve their rights,” the motion reads. “Plaintiffs’ counsel indicated that he had not conducted further review in response to Defendants’ letter and, as such, he could not provide any further information on Plaintiffs’ positions.”
Still, CBS and Paramount say, they are willing to work with Trump and Jackson — and wait somewhat longer. To that end, they are asking the court to enter a limited order in their favor — but keep it hanging over the plaintiffs’ heads.
“While Defendants believe that the Court should hold this motion in abeyance as negotiations between the parties are ongoing, Defendants move to compel production in order to preserve their rights under the Court’s scheduling order,” the motion asks.
At the same time, the defendants are not pulling punches on what they think the requested discovery is likely to show — no matter how the documents ultimately make their way into the light.
“As Defendants’ motion to dismiss makes clear, President Trump’s alleged $20 billion in damages supposedly suffered to his interests in TMTG and his ‘other media holdings’ as a result of the 60 Minutes Interview are inherently incredible,” the motion to compel goes on. “Nonetheless, President Trump pled such alleged damages and he consequently must be put to the test of substantiating any such alleged losses. Instead of agreeing to produce the relevant documents, Plaintiffs seek to delay.”
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