Lawyers for Donald Trump and Sundar Pichai have been in private negotiations for four months in hopes of resolving the president's 2021 "de-platforming" lawsuit against YouTube and the CEO, Business Insider has confirmed - and now the judge is demanding a public update. In an order issued from Oakland late Tuesday, US District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers told the parties to provide "a substantive plan" for resolving the lawsuit.
Cullen normally serves in the federal court system for the western district of Virginia, but since all 15 judges in Maryland's district court system were named as defendants in the case, someone from outside the state had to be brought in to resolve the case. The lawsuit was a highly unusual, broad-strokes attack on the federal judicial system in Maryland, where Trump's immigration agenda has faced several high-profile setbacks.
Kroft highlighted the fear within Paramount, stating, "I think there's a lot of fear over there fear of losing their job, fear of what's happening to the country, fear of losing the First Amendment, all of those things." He suggested that the impending merger motivated executives to settle the lawsuit to avoid potential financial loss, stating that "billions being on the line was more important to executives than fighting a ridiculous lawsuit." Kroft called the settlement a shakedown, underscoring that it ultimately worked in the president's favor.
