Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and two other Democratic lawmakers demanded more information Monday about what Trump administration officials discussed with Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos before the streaming giant pulled out of the bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery.
In a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, Warren and her co-signers expressed concern that Trump administration officials “used the closed-door meetings” with Sarandos last week to “discourage Netflix’s bid so that Paramount Skydance … could take over Warner Bros. instead.”
The letter was co-signed by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Rep. Sam Liccardo, D-Calif. The White House, the Justice Department and Netflix did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Paramount Skydance signed a merger agreement with Warner Bros. Discovery on Friday, a day after Netflix announced it would not increase its offer for WBD’s studio and streaming assets. Paramount Skydance is led by David Ellison, the son of billionaire Oracle mogul Larry Ellison, a close ally of President Donald Trump.
“Your conversations with Mr. Sarandos taint the Warner Bros. bidding process by raising suspicions that the Trump administration’s DOJ is making merger review decisions based on politicized favoritism rather than the law or the facts,” the lawmakers wrote in the letter, which was shared with NBC News.
Netflix quit the bidding war hours after Sarandos’ meetings in Washington. In a statement, Sarandos and co-CEO Greg Peters said they believed the price required to match Paramount Skydance’s offer was not “financially attractive,” adding that “this transaction was always a ‘nice to have’ at the right price, not a ‘must have’ at any price.”
In an interview with Bloomberg published Sunday, Sarandos was asked what the Justice Department and Trump said to him about Netflix’s quest to acquire WBD. In response, Sarandos said: “I don’t know that there was growing political resistance.”
“It was a growing narrative of political resistance. But we were on a normal regulatory path. I was in D.C. on Thursday for a scheduled meeting with DOJ from a couple weeks ago to go through some questions about the deal. It was a very productive meeting, nothing out of the ordinary,” Sarandos said. “Nothing had shifted or changed dramatically that hauled me to D.C.”
Warren, Blumenthal and Liccardo are nonetheless pressing for more clarity about what Sarandos discussed with representatives from the Trump administration on Thursday. (The Democratic lawmaker does not have subpoena power because her party does not have a majority in the U.S. Senate.)
“The American people deserve to know what Mr. Sarandos was seeking in your meetings, what you said to him, and how your discussions may have contributed to Netflix backing out of the bidding war while the Antitrust Division’s investigation was still pending,” the lawmakers wrote in the five-page letter.
NBC News previously reported that Sarandos met with White House staff, but not with Trump. The New York Post reported that Sarandos met with Bondi, Wiles and Justice Department antitrust officials to “try to convince the administration not to oppose the deal on antitrust grounds.” NBC News has not verified that report.
Trump recently told NBC News’ Tom Llamas that he would stay out of the antitrust process around the WBD purchase, but he previously indicated multiple times that he would be personally involved. The president has also praised the Ellison family.
“Larry Ellison is great and his son David is great,” Trump told reporters in October. “They’re friends of mine. They’re big supporters of mine, and they’ll do the right thing.”
David Ellison, speaking on an investors call Monday morning, said Paramount Skydance believes there are “no statutory impediments” to close the WBD merger in the U.S. “We have already made significant progress in securing regulatory clearances globally prior to the signing of our merger agreement,” he said.
Ellison’s Skydance Media acquired Paramount Global last year in a transaction valued at $8 billion.
Sarandos and Ellison both visited Washington as their respective companies pursued WBD. Sarandos testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee’s antitrust panel in February, while Ellison attended last week’s State of the Union address as a guest of Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., according to a photo on X.
Netflix’s bid for WBD did not include the company’s cable assets, such as CNN, whereas Paramount Skydance is set to acquire the entire company.
If approved, the Paramount-WBD merger would unite two storied Hollywood film studios and encompass a sprawling library of intellectual property that ranges from “The Godfather” and SpongeBob SquarePants (Paramount) to “Casablanca” and Batman (WBD).