A 60 Minutes segment on the mistreatment of migrants sent by the U.S. to a Salvadoran prison that CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss made the controversial move to pull just ahead of airtime appears to have leaked online.
Though Weiss moved to halt the original planned Sunday broadcast, users of the Canadian Global TV app were reportedly able to see a copy of the segment, which was soon widely shared online.
The 13-minute clip, which has not been officially verified by CBS, contains harrowing stories of mistreatment detainees said they endured in CECOT, a prison in El Salvador where the U.S. deported hundreds of individuals without due process it accused on little evidence of being Venezuelan gang members invading the U.S.
“When we got there, the CECOT director was talking to us,” Luis Munoz Pinto, a college student in Venezuela who sought asylum in the U.S., says in the segment. “The first thing he told us was that we would never see the light of day or night again. He said: ‘Welcome to hell. I’ll make sure you’ll never leave.’”
Pinto adds that those inside the facility believed they were “the living dead.”
Others describe being tortured through what they said were savage beatings or isolating detentions in a room called “the island,” which allegedly had no light or ventilation.
The Independent has contacted CBS News, 60 Minutes, and Global TV for comment.
The apparent leak fuels the already growing controversy around the segment.
Newsroom sources previously told The Independent that some CBS News staff are ready to “revolt,” after Weiss pulled the segment while allegedly citing a lack of an on-camera response from a top Trump administration official and arguing other outlets had already reported much of the information in the broadcast.
The alleged leaked copy of the segment says the Department of Homeland Security declined a request for an interview and deferred all questions about CECOT to El Salvador, which did not respond to 60 Minutes.
Sharyn Alfonsi, who produced the pulled CECOT investigation, reportedly stridently criticized the editorial process around the segment in a memo to her fellow staff.
In the memo, she reportedly said the segment had been screened five times, cleared by CBS attorneys, and was factually correct.
She accused the Trump administration of refusing to respond as “a tactical maneuver designed to kill the story.”
“If the administration’s refusal to participate becomes a valid reason to spike a story, we have effectively handed them a ‘kill switch’ for any reporting they find inconvenient,” she reportedly added.
“My job is to make sure that all stories we publish are the best they can be,” Weiss said in a statement Sunday. “Holding stories that aren’t ready for whatever reason — that they lack sufficient context, say, or that they are missing critical voices — happens every day in every newsroom. I look forward to airing this important piece when it’s ready.”
Behind the scenes, Weiss, who lacked any traditional TV news background before being installed in October, reportedly offered up potential cell phone numbers for top Trump administration officials such as border czar Tom Homan and Homeland Security adviser Stephen Miller as a way for reporters to continue chasing the story.
Weiss’s decision making around the CECOT segment has sparked claims she was influenced by political pressures, owing to CBS parent Paramount Skydance’s ongoing bid to take over Warner Bros. Discovery, a move that would need federal clearance.
President Trump has complained in recent weeks of his treatment by 60 Minutes.
“I love the new owners of CBS,” Trump said at a Friday rally. “Something happens to them, though. 60 Minutes has treated me worse under the new ownership… they just keep hitting me, it’s crazy.”
In August, Skydance and Paramount officially merged following a complicated process dogged with accusations of political meddling.
Skydance was founded by David Ellison, son of the billionaire Oracle tech mogul and Trump supporter Larry Ellison.
Shortly before the merger was complete, with approval hanging in the balance, Paramount agreed to a $16 million settlement in a lawsuit from Trump against 60 Minutes, which had alleged it deceptively edited an interview with his 2024 rival Kamala Harris.
Io Dodds contributed reporting to this story.
