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Hit job on Ellison? Bonta has an unsavory history. Ellison (who is pro Trump) was just about to MOVE THE COMPANY OUT OF CALIFORNIA when this happened. The temporary restraining order presents a risk of missing the September closing deadline and triggering penalties. Hope Bonta doesn't expect a pay off. People are watching.

Biden Judge Halts Paramount’s $110 Billion Warner Bros. Discovery Merger After California and Blue-State Coalition Sues to Kill the Deal

Jul 20 2026

U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín, a Biden appointee, issued a temporary restraining order Monday blocking Paramount Skydance’s roughly $110–111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.

The two-week pause comes after California Attorney General Rob Bonta and a coalition of 11 other mostly Democrat state attorneys general sued to stop the deal, claiming it would somehow harm competition, raise prices, and reduce choices for movie theaters and streaming customers.

Bonta’s coalition includes Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, and Washington.

The judge sided with the states, citing “compelling evidence” on market share. A hearing on a longer injunction is set for August 3 in Oakland. Paramount now faces the real risk of missing its September closing deadline and triggering penalties.

The coalition of states claims the merger would create an entertainment giant with excessive market power, leading to higher prices, fewer choices for consumers, and reduced competition in film distribution and cable television.

Paramount has rejected those claims, arguing that the lawsuit relies on an outdated view of the modern media landscape and ignores intense competition from streaming giants such as Netflix and Disney.

The legal challenge represents the most significant obstacle yet to Paramount’s effort to combine with Warner Bros. Discovery. The deal would unite major brands including CBS, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros., HBO, CNN, Paramount+, HBO Max, and numerous cable networks under a single corporate umbrella.

As The Gateway Pundit reported just last week, Paramount was already seriously considering packing up and leaving California entirely over Bonta’s relentless efforts to torpedo the merger.

Advisers were urging CEO David Ellison to move the company’s headquarters and reallocate tens of billions in planned spending outside the Golden State after Bonta’s lawsuit dropped.

Recall the sequence. Paramount Skydance won the bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery earlier this year after Netflix walked away. Shareholders approved the deal. Multiple international regulators signed off. Critically, the U.S. Department of Justice under the Trump administration cleared the transaction. Yet that wasn’t good enough for Rob Bonta and his fellow blue-state attorneys general.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2026/07/biden-judge-halts-paramounts-110-billion-warner-bros/

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Atty. Gen. Bonta spent nearly half a million on attorneys. His political consultant explains why

California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta spent nearly half a million dollars in campaign funds last year on personal attorneys to represent him as he spoke to federal investigators about alleged corruption in Oakland.

Bonta paid about $468,000 to law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati last year from his 2026 reelection campaign, according to campaign finance disclosures filed with the state.

Bonta political consultant Dan Newman said the attorney general was approached by federal investigators because he was viewed as a “possible victim” in the alleged corruption case involving a former Oakland mayor and Bay Area business owners.

Newman said “the sole role was to assist by providing information that would be helpful to the investigation.”

“This was all completed in 2024, over a year ago, and the AG’s involvement is over,” Newman said.

Bonta’s payments to the legal team were first reported by Sacramento’s KCRA-TV.

The U.S. Department of Justice in January charged former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao in an alleged bribery scheme involving local businesspeople David Trung Duong and Andy Hung Duong.

Thao ran for Oakland mayor in 2022 and was recalled from office by city voters in 2024 after growing voter frustration over crime and the city’s budget woes. She was arrested in early 2025 by the FBI.

According to the indictment, Thao, then a mayoral candidate, engaged in a quid pro quo scheme with the Duong brothers in which she promised to take official actions as the mayor to help their recycling and modular homes businesses.

The Duong brothers and Thao have pleaded not guilty.

The San Jose Mercury News reported in January 2025 that campaign finance regulators had also been closely scrutinizing Andy Duong. The Duong family viewed Bonta as a political ally, according to the newspaper.

Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2021 selected Bonta, then an Assembly member representing the Oakland area, as the attorney general to serve the remaining term ofXavier Becerra, whom President Biden nominated to become the U.S. Health and Human Services secretary.

Bonta has emerged as a key player in California’s battle against President Trump, filing dozens of lawsuits against the Trump administration.

Bonta eventually returned $155,000 in campaign contributions from the Duong family after the federal investigation became public, according to multiple news reports.

Newman, Bonta’s consultant, said that the attorney general was ultimately found not to be a victim in the case. When asked why so much money was spent on attorneys, he said that multiple lawyers worked over a period of several months.

Nov 2025

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-11-19/attorney-general-rob-bonta-legal-fees-oakland-corruption-case