California Attorney General Rob Bonta on Paramount: 'We had a great settlement'

As the priciest takeover in the history of Hollywood moves forward, California Attorney General Rob Bonta isn't letting critics of the Paramount settlement impact his thoughts on the deal.

When asked whether he's surprised that people continue to say that he caved, or that David Ellison was the real winner in all of this, Bonta said he believes it was a great settlement.

"I say that we had a great settlement that delivered on the antitrust concerns in the case...It is not a blessing of this merger. It is not the blessing of any merger. And I have said very publicly, and I'll say it again here, that mergers in industries, market consolidations, market concentrations, tend to have negative and adverse consequences. They can increase prices for consumers. They can cut jobs. They can lower wages. They can decrease choice quality competition. And so what we were doing here was solving for antitrust concerns in basically two markets. The distribution of wide-release theatrical films and cable channel licensing, and we were able to solve for those," said Bonta.

Bonta, who led a coalition of 12 AGs in securing the settlement, believes it will boost Hollywood jobs.

"Right here in Hollywood, there have been commitments to keep the headquarters and the studios right here in Los Angeles. So that means people will be working at the headquarters, working in the studios. those who were working in New York at Warner Brothers will be coming to L.A. so that's more jobs, more workers here," said Bonta.

We also asked Bonta about the California Supreme Court ruling against Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco seizing ballots.

"He has a court order that is binding his behavior. If he fails to comply with that, he can be held in contempt of court, civil contempt of course. He can go to jail where unless and until he complies...We do expect him to comply because the California Supreme Court has ordered him to return the ballots. The ballots were actually returned to us yesterday. They are being inventoried to make sure that they haven't been interfered with," said Bonta.

Early voting starts in L.A. County Thursday, and the final day of voting is Nov. 3. Last Friday, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Trump administration on using the federal save database to determine voter eligibility.

"We have seen in some states, like in Texas, eligible voters have been disenfranchised. They've been removed from the voter rolls. They've be deregistered. Some eligible voters had been required to prove citizenship when they're already eligible and have been determined to be eligible and have the right to vote. So it has the potential and potency to disenfranchise, to suppress the vote," he said. "We're very concerned about that. But we're focused on this election coming up, and it won't impact this election. And then we'll look to the battles ahead to determine how and if it could impact future elections."