{"id":864015,"date":"2026-09-28T22:26:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T22:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/864015\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T22:26:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T22:26:08","slug":"paramount-blue-state-ags-hit-cory-booker-over-antitrust-suit-settlement-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/864015\/","title":{"rendered":"Paramount, Blue State AGs Hit Cory Booker Over Antitrust Suit Settlement Comments"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tParamount<\/a> and Warner Bros Discovery<\/a>, plus a dozen blue states, want Cory Booker<\/a> to stay in his own lane when it comes to the antitrust settlement <\/a>over the companies\u2019 $111 billion mega-merger. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe fact that a proposed consent decree does not contain every outcome that one party may have wanted in a multilateral negotiation does not make it substantively unfair,\u201d Monday\u2019s court-ordered response states. <\/a>\u201cThis is the very essence of a negotiated agreement that includes compromises on behalf of all of the parties involved,\u201d notes Para and WBD lawyers in the filing that posted to the docket just 30 minutes before U.S. District Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin\u2019s noon PT deadline.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe Decree reflects a reasonable compromise that addresses the competitive issues posed by the proposed merger in the markets alleged in the Complaint,\u201d adds a 17-page filing Monday<\/a> from California, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Minnesota, Nevada, Booker\u2019s own New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, and Washington themselves declaring their deal is \u201cfair, reasonable, equitable, and awful.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tIn a classic example of the disunity Democrats are infamous for, the Blue dozen (at least four of whom had great apprehension about the settlement right up to the end<\/a>) go on to say: \u201cAnd the Decree\u2019s enforcement provisions have teeth. Thus, \u2026the Decree meets the applicable standards and it should be entered.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIntentionally disregarding the anti-merger amicus briefs filed late last week <\/a>by Block the Merger<\/a> and the League of United Latin American Citizens, ParaBros\u2019 lawyers and Democratic AGs from across the nation today formally responded to the September 24 letter from New Jersey\u2019s senior Senator. On brand with past concerns about the merger itself and with Mark Ruffalo<\/a> attending hearings, Booker once again <\/a>challenged the settlement David Ellison<\/a> reached with blue state AGs last week. As of today, with that $7 million ticking fee to WBD shareholders kicking in October 1 and Ellison\u2019s leaked threat to pull up HQ stakes outta the Golden State still stinging, the deal still sits in legal limbo. Which is where it will stay, as all concerned await a decision from an Oakland-based federal judge.<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tA state of affairs that puts a lot of Monday\u2019s ParaBros lawyers\u2019 letter in the flying the flag category. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cTwelve attorneys general, each accountable to their own electorate, judged this relief to be a fair compromise sufficient to resolve the claims they asserted in the complaint,\u201d the 16-page document insists, playing to the notoriously self-sabotaging Democrats\u2019 internal party politics.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"L-R:<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tL-R: Rob Bonta<\/a>, NY AG Leticia James & Paramount CEO David Ellison<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty Images<\/p>\n

\n\tThe parties hoped to see Judge Martinez-Olguin give the consent degree the green light last week. However, taking the place of a long scheduled virtual hearing on Paramount\u2019s pre-settlement Hail Mary hope for a $1.88 billion bond to offset the \u201cextraordinary losses\u201d that could come out of waiting for a March 2027 trial, the September 24 sit-down went off the rails \u2013 at least from the POV of ParaBros and the pleading states, led by California Senior Assistant AG Paula Blizzard.<\/p>\n

\n\tComing for a variety of longtime critics of the merger, opposition rose and suspicion about the settlement served to pour gasoline on an already flicking fire. \u201cThe Court should measure the proposed remedies against the relief the States originally sought: an injunction blocking the merger altogether,\u201d Booker (D-NJ) said in his six-page letter, requesting a number of measures including an independent review of the settlement. \u201cThe decree does not address the core of the case\u2014that the merger is anticompetitive and will eliminate jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tContacted by Deadline today, Booker had no response to Para, WBD and the AGs\u2019 response to his September 24 letter.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn their response Monday, the corporate lawyers took much the same tact and tone they brought to an initial reaction to Booker\u2019s letter last week<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe adequacy of the decree must therefore be assessed against the risk of continued litigation\u2014including the substantial prospect that Plaintiff States would have recovered nothing at all\u2014rather than against an assumed permanent injunction that Plaintiff States did not obtain,\u201d argued Monday the ParaBros attorneys from some of the nation\u2019s top firms. Accordingly, the relief Plaintiff States secured is substantively reasonable.<\/p>\n

\n\tStill, with the ambitious Bonta, CA Gov, Gavin Newsom<\/a>, L.A. Mayor Karen Bass and others stung by the blowback from the Dems\u2019 base<\/a> on their push for a settlement, there is no word yet when the Joe Biden- appointed Judge Martinez-Olguin will sign off on the consent degree.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paramount and Warner Bros Discovery, plus a dozen blue states, want Cory Booker to stay in his own…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":864016,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[364520,15284,37003,18205,12,88,2013,41215,4208,226553,228983,93508,10343],"class_list":["post-864015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-block-the-merger","tag-cnn","tag-cory-booker","tag-david-ellison","tag-donald-trump","tag-entertainment","tag-gavin-newsom","tag-mark-ruffalo","tag-paramount","tag-paramount-wb","tag-paramount-wbd","tag-rob-bonta","tag-warner-bros-discovery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=864015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/864016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=864015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=864015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=864015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}