During the final stretch of the 2024 campaign, President Donald Trump harshly criticized -- and later sued -- CBS News over the way in which the network deceptively edited and broadcast its "60 Minutes" interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris.

Asked this week about the status of the $20 billion lawsuit and rumors about a negotiated settlement to end the legal dispute, Trump said his lawyers were seeking "a lot" of money from the network, Deadline reported.

The president also suggested there was no linkage between his lawsuit against CBS News and a Federal Communications Commission probe of potential federal law violations by the network in its editing of the Harris interview.

Trump's lawyers asking for "a lot" in settlement with CBS News

President Trump held his first Cabinet meeting this week and like so many other of his events that are opened to the media, the meeting soon became an impromptu news conference as the president addressed numerous questions from reporters.

In response to one reporter's query about whether he'd like to see his litigation against CBS News go to trial or end with a settlement, Trump launched into a reiteration of his complaints about how the network deceptively edited portions of the "60 Minutes" interview with VP Harris to, in his view, provide assistance to the Democratic nominee ahead of the impending election.

"They took out her answer, and they inserted an entirely different answer that made her sound competent," Trump said. "And they did this, and nobody’s ever -- I thought I’ve heard of everything when it comes to that stuff. No -- I’ve never heard of it. Nobody has ever seen. So, we sued, and we are in discussions of settlement."

The reporter asked if there was a specific "number" the president hoped his lawyers would request in any sort of settlement, and to the amusement of most of the others in the room, Trump quipped, "I think it’s a lot."

"No, I mean, it -- look, it could have -- it probably did affect the election," he insisted of the impact of the network's editing of the interview. "I mean, we won by a lot. As I said, 'Too big to rig.' But it probably did affect the election. Yeah, probably could have won by more, but I could have lost the election because of that."

No linkage between lawsuit and FCC inquiry

President Trump went on to discuss the need for electoral process reforms for a few moments before eventually returning back to the topic raised by the reporter and said, "But on the '60 Minute' thing, nobody’s ever seen anything like it."

A reporter asked the president if he would "link the FCC action to the litigation," but Trump seemed to suggest that that wasn't the case.

"I don’t think it’s linked, but probably the lawyers look at it, you know, because I know it’s going along," the president said. "FCC is headed by a very competent person, and you have some very competent people on the board, and so I think they’re looking at it very seriously."

FCC opened an inquiry into CBS News over VP Harris interview

According to AdWeek, the FCC is currently headed by Trump appointee Brendan Carr, who previously opened a formal inquiry into CBS News and "60 Minutes" following a filed complaint about possible violations of the FCC's decades-old "news distortion policy."

That prompted the network to finally release the unedited video and transcript of the VP Harris interview, albeit with a defiant statement that insisted the October broadcast "was not doctored or deceitful."

There is no clear indication of how much CBS News might agree to pay in any final settlement agreement, and given that the lawsuit initially demanded $10 billion before being doubled to $20 billion -- but also in light of ABC News' $15 million settlement of a Trump lawsuit last year -- the final settlement could be anywhere within that exceptionally broad range.