Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts,

radio, news.

>> 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 Bont. Mr. Attorney

General, welcome back to Bloomberg TV

and Radio. We were just discussing with

our colleague Greg Store about how the

Supreme Court is simply allowing uh this

to move forward for now. This is by no

means a final ruling, but is it one that

California would have to uh accept if

the justices ultimately do decide on the

merits that the suggestions the

president President Trump has uh pushed

the US postal service to make regarding

mail and ballots do move forward.

>> We're a long way from that. This is a

purely procedural order. Uh um ruling on

things called standing and justice just

meaning is is it ripe? Is it ready to be

even um uh um a case that can go to

court and be decided on? And so it's

it's not anywhere near the merit stage

yet. They haven't talked about the

merits. Um they were waiting for a final

rule to be issued on this um executive

order relating to u in our in our view

the unconstitutional unlawful use of the

US Postal Service to um undermine uh

free and fair voting by eligible

American voters across the country. And

so we are prepared to bring a lawsuit uh

on the final rule now that the rule is

final and that will tee up the the

merits uh the substance of the executive

order its legality or as we argue lack

thereof. Uh so that will go back to uh

federal trial court um and appellet

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 at in every court

including the federal trial court, the

appellet court and the US Supreme Court.

We appreciate your weighing in on that,

Attorney General, and welcome back to

Bloomberg. We invited you to talk about

a number of issues uh including

Paramount's uh merger with Warner

Brothers. You were supposed to meet with

Paramount today, and there's been a lot

of reporting about this that you canled

that meeting, accusing the company of

playing games. What happened?

>> Yeah, I pulled down the meeting today uh

because in my view, Paramount uh was

being too cute. They were playing games.

They were um disclosing through leaks to

the press uh 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 uh settlement negotiations

that they need to be confidential. Uh

there needs to be some trust in the

room. There needs to be opportunity to

share ideas, be candid, uh maybe be

creative and they undermine that um by

violating the rules of engagement. It's

something uh that most attorneys never

do, but they decided to do it. Um and so

that was a problem for us. Uh we did

have some um 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 uh

where they were naming sources uh that

had to be Paramount Warner Brothers. So

um that doesn't work. That doesn't fly.

So we rescheduled or we took down the

the meeting until such time as they are

prepared to follow the rules.

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 contraential discussions with the

AG's office." uh un you obviously uh

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 on

movement forward?

>> It's completely on them and let me just

first say this idea that that they're

not responsible someone's responsible

for the leaks. They don't just uh 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 can 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, um uh that can be

soon if they can address the issue soon.

>> I'm sure your phone is ringing a lot uh

lately, attorney general, not just with

uh the legal representatives on both

sides of this, but from politicians uh

in your state. There are growing calls

to reach a settlement for the sake of

jobs, for the sake of the Hollywood

industry. Uh and one of them is Governor

Nuomo. Are you now fundamentally at odds

with the governor over this deal?

>> Not at all. I I think I'm fundamentally

consistent with him, with governor to be

Javier Bera, uh w with others. You know,

we've always said, I've said it before,

I I I'll say it now, I'll say it in the

future, we always prefer to be able to

resolve disputes in the boardroom, not

the courtroom. uh if a opposing party in

one of our lawsuits in good faith and

sincerely reaches out to us to try to

productively resolve a case, we'll take

that meeting and we'll we'll work to

resolve the case. So, what they're

asking for is what I've always said and

what I will do here uh if Paramount can

get their um their their um themselves

in order and and fix their their issues

with these lying leaks and engage the

right way.

Well, when we consider uh the engagement

and what you hope to get out of it, uh

Mr. Attorney General, what in your mind

would resolve your concerns around

consolidation and eroding competition?

Might it require the sale of Paramount

Pictures or or Warner Warner Brothers

Studios? Is there a way to address your

concerns without that?

>> Well, we've always said that we want

structural remedies, robust structural

remedies. I've said that publicly and

Paramount knows exactly what that is. uh

whether they will propose them or agree

to them is is up to them. But they

they've continuously proposed behavioral

remedies like promising to behave in a

way that in which they make 30 movies a

year I think for three years. That's a

behavioral remedy. It's not structural.

So we've identified three markets in our

complaint uh with respect to widespread

theatrical release distribution,

blockbuster release distribution and

cable channel licensing. And there is a

if they want to propose a structural

remedy for each of those markets, we'll

listen.

Last time we had a chance to speak

attorney general, it was on the eve of

the trial uh against Meta uh starting

something that you have helped to

spearhead as one of four attorneys

general. How is the trial proceeding and

will we hear from Mark Zuckerberg?

>> We think it's going very well. Uh the

evidence has have been coming in um as

we hoped and very compelling um

providing all sorts of evidentiary

support for our uh allegations which

which I think are very strong that uh

Meta designed and deployed a dangerous

product that hurt the mental health

mental health of kids and they lied

about it and we do have Mark Zuckerberg

on our witness list and um prepared

we're prepared to call him.

Well, do you have a sense as to whether

or not he will come on the witness

stand? What timeline could we expect to

see Mark Zuckerberg actually present in

the trial?

>> I don't know the exact when and some

there's some parts of the trial that are

dynamic and um you know different ways.

Um of course we want to work with him um

and and make sure that that we can get

him at a time. We always try to work

together uh with the witness. So, I

don't know exactly when, but we he is

someone that we plan to call in this

trial. He is on our witness list. Uh,

everyone expects him to testify at some

point in this trial. Um, and so, uh,

when exactly that will be, I don't know.

>> All right. It's good to have you back,

Attorney General. It sounds like we're

going to have a lot to follow up on with

you, and we always appreciate your time.

Rob Bont with us live from