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\n

Democratic lawmakers are readying aggressive oversight of Paramount Skydance\u2019s bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, and Paramount\u2019s top lawyer said Tuesday the company is \u201chappy to cooperate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not naive to know that politics does not exist,\u201d Paramount Chief Legal Officer Makan Delrahim said. \u201cWe\u2019re not shocked about that. We\u2019ll be happy to cooperate and really engage with Republicans and Democrats about any issue and aspect. This merger is actually going to be good not only for California, it\u2019ll be good for America.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paramount has been \u201ctransparent\u201d and responsive to lawmaker\u2019s concerns,\u201d Delrahim \u2014 who served as Trump\u2019s antitrust chief in his first administration \u2014 said at Blue Light News\u2019s The California Agenda: Sacramento Summit. <\/p>\n

The merger of the media companies has become a flashpoint for Democratic outcry, as the party outlines a range of grievances that could resurface as a sweeping oversight effort if they take control of one or both chambers of Congress next year. Top Democrats already insist Paramount CEO David Ellison and his company have been less than forthcoming.<\/p>\n

Democrats have blasted Paramount\u2019s $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery as a gross antitrust violation with serious national security implications due in part to the involvement of foreign investment in the deal. And they have slammed Ellison for paying a $16 million settlement to President Donald Trump, which Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts claimed could be \u201cbribery in plain sight\u201d<\/a> in exchange for the administration\u2019s approval of the company\u2019s merger with Skydance last year.<\/p>\n

Ellison also last week tried to tamp<\/a> down Democratic concerns he would influence the independence of news network BLN after the deal, after Paramount\u2019s takeover of CBS News last year led to outrage from journalists that leadership was pressing for more favorable coverage of the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

California Attorney General Rob Bonta is leading 12-states in a lawsuit to block the company\u2019s current merger with Warner Bros., and last week, a federal judge scheduled a March trial to decide whether the acquisition violates antitrust law. Paramount agreed to punt the merger until next year \u2014 precisely when Democrats hope to be back in power.<\/p>\n

Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said in a statement to Blue Light News that Ellison \u201chas evaded Congressional oversight of his work to create a mega-media empire designed to serve Donald Trump\u2019s political agenda. If he thinks he can run out the clock on Congressional scrutiny of his massive media mergers and blockbuster corporate deals, he\u2019s mistaken.\u201d<\/p>\n

Raskin called the investigation a \u201cpriority\u201d and said \u201canyone involved should be prepared to answer under oath for their role in this brazen campaign to bend America\u2019s free press to Donald Trump\u2019s political, financial and personal will.\u201d<\/p>\n

Presented with Raskin\u2019s statement, Delrahim said, \u201cYou can allege all you want. There is no corruption here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d be happy to engage with Congressman Raskin and provide him, as we have, information,\u201d Delrahim continued. \u201cIt sounds good, and I get it. It\u2019s politics. But we respect his role and his important role in oversight. But just because he said so doesn’t mean that there is any corruption.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Democratic lawmakers are readying aggressive oversight of Paramount Skydance\u2019s bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, and Paramount\u2019s top lawyer said Tuesday the company is \u201chappy to cooperate.\u201d \u201cWe\u2019re not naive to know that politics does not exist,\u201d Paramount Chief Legal Officer Makan Delrahim said. \u201cWe\u2019re not shocked about that. We\u2019ll be happy to cooperate and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26821\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}