Banned CBS ’60 Minutes’ Episode Leaked Online

In a media firestorm that’s shaking both Washington and Hollywood, a censored episode of 60 Minutes—reportedly yanked by CBS News chief Bari Weiss under pressure from President Trump’s White House—has leaked online, exposing harrowing footage from inside one of the world’s most feared prisons.

The segment, Inside CECOT, centers on Venezuelan migrants deported under Trump’s controversial 2025 mass removal initiative, which critics have dubbed “Deportation Boom 2.0.” Many of those exiled were sent not back to Venezuela—but to El Salvador’s maximum-security mega-prison, CECOT, where some of the hemisphere’s most violent gang members are held under the rule of populist strongman President Nayib Bukele.

Here’s the 60 Minutes segment that CBS suddenly refused to air—after Trump criticized the show.

Take a few minutes to watch what they didn’t want you to see. This story should be told: https://t.co/C6nKRiS60B

— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) December 23, 2025

60 Minutes had promoted the segment for weeks, only for it to vanish hours before air. “The lineup for tonight’s edition has been updated,” CBS posted on X, promising the report would air “in a future broadcast.”

But that future never came. A Canadian affiliate, Global TV, accidentally aired the piece early on its streaming app before removing it—too late to stop viewers from capturing and uploading it across social media platforms. The footage quickly spread on X and Telegram, despite takedown attempts.

In the leaked segment, correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi interviews deported Venezuelans who claim they were seized while seeking asylum in the U.S., then flown—without trial—to CECOT. “We were treated like terrorists,” one detainee, Luis Muñoz Pinto, told 60 Minutes. “I had no criminal record. I came for safety. Now I’m chained like an animal.”

The episode shows men shackled, shaved, and lined up under the gaze of armed Salvadoran soldiers. Alfonsi narrates: “Four months of hell. Beatings, forced confessions, and near-starvation—all under a U.S.-funded transfer deal.”

According to NBC News, Alfonsi told colleagues the piece had passed five separate legal and editorial reviews. “It’s factually correct. Pulling it now is not an editorial decision—it’s a political one,” she wrote in a leaked internal memo.

Weiss defended her call, claiming the report “lacked sufficient context.” A CBS spokesperson added that “additional reporting” was required. But insiders describe “intense back-channel communications” between CBS executives and Trump officials over the segment’s timing—less than a month after Paramount’s $16 million settlement with Trump over a previous 60 Minutes interview.

The leak has triggered outrage from journalists and lawmakers. Senator Brian Schatz slammed CBS leadership on X: “If executives think they can build shareholder value by avoiding journalism that might offend the Mad King, they’re about to learn a tough lesson.”

Federal Communications Commissioner Anna M. Gomez called the situation “a terrible embarrassment,” demanding CBS “demonstrate how it will safeguard newsroom independence.”

Trump’s second-term crackdown on undocumented migrants—widely seen as one of the harshest in modern history—has drawn international condemnation. Deportation flights have resumed to countries the U.S. previously deemed unsafe, including Venezuela, Afghanistan, and Sudan.

Human rights advocates say the CECOT transfers mark a new chapter in what they call “outsourced cruelty.” “Trump wants to make examples out of refugees,” said María Velásquez, an analyst with Human Rights Watch. “He’s exporting suffering to foreign prisons and pretending that’s law and order.”

CBS has yet to announce when—or if—the segment will officially air. But as one 60 Minutes producer told The Guardian: “The cat’s out of the bag. The world saw what Trump didn’t want America to see.”

Source: Newsweek, The Globe and Mail, NBC News, Reuters, The New York Times, and public social media footage.