California Attorney General Rob Bonta Talks Canceled Paramount Talks

**SPEAKER_1** (0:02)
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**Joe Mathieu** (0:07)
And now to turn back to the breaking news we were discussing involving the Supreme Court this hour. Let's get live reaction now from the Attorney General of California, Rob Bonta. Mr. Attorney General, welcome back to Bloomberg TV and Radio. We were just discussing with our colleague Greg Storr about how the Supreme Court is simply allowing this to move forward for now. This is by no means a final ruling, is it one that California would have to accept if the justices ultimately do decide on the merits, the suggestions the president Trump has pushed the US Postal Service to make regarding mail and ballots do move forward?

**Rob Bonta** (0:42)
We're a long way from that. This is a purely procedural order, ruling on things called standing and justiciability, meaning is it ripe? Is it ready to be even a case that can go to court and be decided on? And so it's not anywhere near the merit stage yet. They haven't talked about the merits.
They were waiting for a final rule to be issued on this executive order relating to, in our view, the unconstitutional unlawful use of the US Postal Service to undermine free and fair voting by eligible American voters across the country. And so we are prepared to bring a lawsuit on the final rule, now that the rule is final, and that will tee up the merits, the substance of the executive order, its legality or as we argue, lack thereof. So that will go back to federal trial court and appellate court and should it ever get to the US Supreme Court, of course, as we always do, we will honor their ruling. But we think we will win this case in every court, including the federal trial court, the appellate court and the US Supreme Court.

**Kailey Leinz** (1:49)
We appreciate you're weighing in on that, Attorney General, and welcome back to Bloomberg. We invited you to talk about a number of issues, including Paramount's merger with Warner Bros. You were supposed to meet with Paramount today, and there's been a lot of reporting about this, that you canceled that meeting, accusing the company of playing games. What happened?

**Rob Bonta** (2:07)
Yeah, I pulled down the meeting today because, in my view, Paramount was being too cute. They were playing games. They were disclosing, through leaks to the press, information that's supposed to be confidential and lying about it. They were leaking lies to the press. And in order to have productive and legally compliant settlement negotiations, they need to be confidential.
There needs to be some trust in the room. There needs to be opportunity to share ideas, be candid, maybe be creative. And they undermine that by violating the rules of engagement. It's something that most attorneys never do. They decided to do it.
And so that was a problem for us. We did have some preliminary early settlement negotiations on Friday. And then on Saturday and Sunday, we started reading about the alleged substance of those conversations in the press. They were naming sources that had to be Paramount Warner Bros. So that doesn't work, that doesn't fly. So we rescheduled or we took down the meeting until such time as they are prepared to follow the rules.

**Joe Mathieu** (3:12)
Well, we should note that Paramount in a statement denied being the source of any leaks, Mr. Attorney General. They said they share your concerns about the public discussions and misreporting that has surrounded this deal. Quote, as we have assured the Attorney General's office, Paramount has not been the source of any of the leaks or of any of our contrapendential discussions with the AG's office. You obviously understand this went down a very different way.
But has this meeting been rescheduled or does that statement indicate that you and Paramount have not found a way to see eye-to-eye on movement forward?

**Rob Bonta** (3:46)
It's completely on them. And let me just first say this idea that they're not responsible, someone's responsible for the leaks. They don't just appear out of thin air, they have an army of attorneys, they have an army of consultants. They need to figure out who's responsible, put a lid on it, end it, and move forward in the appropriate way. And it's up to them whether they can, are interested in, or will do that. As soon as they do, we're ready to sit down and talk. So that can be soon, if they can address the issue soon.

**Kailey Leinz** (4:13)
I'm sure your phone is ringing a lot lately, attorney general, not just with the legal representatives on both sides of this, but from politicians in your state, there are growing calls to reach a settlement for the sake of jobs, for the sake of the Hollywood industry. And one of them is Governor Newsom. Are you now fundamentally at odds with the governor over this deal?