Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren and Richard Blumenthal and Congressman Sam Liccardo sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles on Monday demanding answers regarding their meeting with Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos.
The lawmakers asked the pair what their role was in Netflix abandoning its $83 billion deal to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery and whether the political influence of the Trump administration helped Paramount Skydance win the bidding war instead.
“Netflix dropped out of the months-long bidding war for Warner Bros. last Thursday, hours after you reportedly met with Mr. Sarandos — leaving Paramount on what looks like a glide path to acquire Warner Bros. pending an upcoming shareholder vote,” the letter states. “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.”
In a statement shared Monday with TheWrap, a White House official reiterated the administration’s insistence – which Sarandos corroborated over the weekend – that it remained neutral throughout the netotiations and preliminary regulatory processes.
“President Trump has great relationships with both Netflix and Paramount,” the official said. “The White House and Trump administration remained totally neutral through the bidding process that was determined solely by the economics of both offers, as confirmed by Netflix’s CEO himself.”
Warren, Blumenthal and Liccardo argued that the conversation with Sarandos has tainted the 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.”
They added that the timing of the meeting is “even more disturbing” given Antitrust Division chief Gail Slater’s departure just days earlier and amid “increasing lobbyist influence over DOJ’s antitrust work.”
“Trump-friendly lobbyists like Mike Davis and firms like Ballard Partners that have connections within the Trump administration have been raking in cash from companies trying to get their mega-mergers through the DOJ,” the letter states. “Netflix and Paramount have both hired Ballard Partners as their lobbyist.”
Warren, Blumenthal and Liccardo also noted that Bondi herself worked at Ballard Partners as early as January 2025 and that they asked her to recuse herself from the WBD bidding process given the “troubling connections.”
The letter is asking for responses to the following questions by March 16:
- Did you meet with Mr. Sarandos on Thursday, February 26, 2026?
- Where did this meeting take place?
- What did you discuss during the meeting?
- Who was present during the meeting?
- Did you make any suggestions or threats regarding Trump administration actions against Netflix?
- Did you make any suggestions or promises regarding Trump administration actions relating to the Warner Bros. merger?
- Did you have any other meetings or communications with Mr. Sarandos or other Netflix representatives, lawyers, or lobbyists prior to February 26?
- For each meeting or communication, please provide the date, the names of attendees, and a description of the discussion.
- Did any of these meetings or communications involve individuals affiliated with Ballard Partners? Please describe.
- Did you have any meetings or communications with David Ellison or other Paramount representatives, lawyers, or lobbyists prior to February 26?
- For each meeting or communication, please provide the date, the names of attendees, and a description of the discussion.
- Did any of these meetings or conversations involve individuals affiliated with Ballard Partners? Please describe.
- Have you discussed Netflix’s or Paramount’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. with President Trump? Please describe the content of any such discussions.
- Have you discussed, or directed others to discuss, Netflix’s or Paramount’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. with any current or former Antitrust Division officials, including former Assistant Attorney General Gail Slater? Please describe the content of any such discussions.
- Have you directed the Antitrust Division to preserve or destroy records related to their review of Netflix’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros.?
A spokesperson for the DOJ confirmed receipt of the letter, but deferred comment to the White House.
The letter comes after Sarandos told Bloomberg in a lengthy interview that Netflix already planned to drop out of the bidding after receiving notice that Warner Bros.’ board was going to reopen negotiations with Paramount. CEO David Ellison would ultimately raise his tenth and final bid to $31 per share.
Netflix, which was offering $27.75 per share for Warner Bros. streaming and studio assets plus additional “stub equity” from the spinoff of its cable networks into Discovery Global, declined to exercise its matching right and instead bowed out.
“We knew right away, when we got the notice on Thursday that [Paramount] had a superior offer and the details of that deal,” Sarandos said. “We knew exactly what we were going to do.”
The meeting at the White House came after President Donald Trump had called on Netflix to fire board member Susan Rice and as the DOJ issued a civil investigative demand (CID) to theater owners, filmmakers and producers to get their input as part of its antitrust review of the Netflix deal.
When asked about the meeting, Sarandos denied that there was “growing political resistance” to the Netflix deal and that the streamer was on a “normal regulatory path.”
“I was in DC on Thursday for a scheduled meeting with DOJ from a couple weeks ago to go through some questions about the deal,” Sarandos said. “It was a very productive meeting, nothing out of the ordinary. Nothing had shifted or changed dramatically that hauled me to DC.”
When asked about Trump weighing in on the deal, Sarandos said it was “a lot less interesting” to the president once it was clear that the company wasn’t interested in CNN.
“He didn’t care that much more about our deal,” he added.
The Paramount-WBD merger is expected to close by Sept. 30. If it takes longer than that, shareholders will get a 25 cent per share “ticking fee” — or approximately $650 million — each quarter until closing. If it doesn’t close at all due to regulatory matters, Paramount will pay WBD a $7 billion termination fee.
On Friday, Paramount paid Netflix its $2.8 billion break-up fee in connection with scrapping the Warner Bros. deal. When asked about what Netflix would do with the break-up fee, Sarandos said the streamer would keep investing in the business. He also said it’s unlikely that Netflix goes after another studio within the next six to 12 months.
“We are builders, not buyers,” he said. “All that is still true.”
Sarandos also pushed back on the theory that Netflix always intended to drive up the price of WBD and then drop out later.
“There are easier ways to make $2.8 billion. We were deep in the regulatory process with 50 regulatory bodies around the world. We had spent a lot of time and energy,” he said. “A lot of people did an incredible amount of work on this deal. I met the top 200 employees of Warner Bros., [co-CEO Greg Peters] and I did. We definitely wanted this asset. We didn’t need it.”
