Larry Ellison, President Trump’s private alleged convos revealed as they’re dragged into Jeff Shell legal mess

Donald Trump and billionaire Larry Ellison have been dragged into the blockbuster legal war between Hollywood fixer RJ Cipriani and Paramount president Jeff Shell in a saga straight out of a film noir.

Pro gambler Cipriani claims in a new legal filing that he received inside intel about talks between tech mogul Ellison and President Trump in Paramount’s pursuit of Warner Bros. Discovery during a meeting on Feb. 2.

Cipriani’s filings allege that Paramount exec Shell told Cipriani about the studio’s acquisition of WBD, and how Trump figures into the plans. “These disclosures included Shell’s verbatim account of a direct personal assurance given by President Donald Trump to Lawrence Ellison, regarding Paramount’s pending acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc.,” the amended complaint says.

The court papers also reference Trump’s alleged influence to get a new sequel in the “Rush Hour” franchise made after the films’ director, Brett Ratner, was behind a Melania Trump doc for Amazon. According to the new court filing, Cipriani’s lawyers claim: “Trump’s personal intervention to direct the Ellisons’ business decisions regarding ‘Rush Hour 4’ is not an isolated incident.” The legal docs also say that Trump told Ellison: “Larry, it looks like Netflix is gonna get Warner Bros., but if you really really want it, Larry, I’ll make sure you get it.” (We’ve reached out to the White House for comment.)

A spokesperson for Paramount Skydance says: “Paramount is aware of the frivolous lawsuit and believes the claims are entirely without merit. There is no factual or legal basis for any claim against Paramount, its Directors or its major shareholders, and the Company intends to defend these allegations vigorously.” 

Shell has previously denied sharing high-level corporate info with Cipriani, but has so far not commented on the latest legal filing,

Documents obtained exclusively by Page Six Hollywood also reveal that Cipriani was offered seven figures to not take legal action against a group of Hollywood heavyweights — including Shell.

Instead the LA and Las Vegas fixer went ahead and sued Shell for $150 million, and has now dragged some of the biggest names in entertainment and tech into a dizzying legal vortex, namely Larry and David Ellison.

The settlement offer, seen by P6H, was dated Feb. 28, while Cipriani’s suit against Shell was filed in March. Patricia Glaser, who has represented Cipriani in recent years, was Shell’s attorney until February, when the first reports of a standoff surfaced in the press. Shell then switched to O’Melveny’s Steven Olson on Feb. 25. What’s curious is that the proposed settlement agreement we obtained was signed by Glaser Feb. 28, days after she was off the case.  

Shell was not a party to the settlement offer, which included a term offering Cipriani seven-figures if he would release all claims against Shell as well as Hollywood studio Paramount Skydance and private equity firm RedBird Capital Partners, as well as the two companies’ officers, directors and agents. But the proposed settlement agreement was only between Glaser and Cipriani. Glaser did not comment when we reached out.

Cipriani apparently never signed the document, and on Tuesday filed an amended complaint that added tech mogul Larry Ellison and his son, Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison, to the growing list of defendants in his $150 million suit. Cipraini claims he was Shell’s crisis PR adviser — while Shell has fired back in a fiery countersuit this week that Cipriani was just a charlatan trying to shake him down.

The new filing also adds defendants including RedBird CEO Gerry Cardinale and the Paramount board (with the lone exception of former Paramount chief Sherry Lansing). “I know her and know that because of her wisdom and experience, if she had had any idea what Jeff Shell was doing, she would have cut him off at the knees,” says Cipriani’s attorney Steven Aaronoff, who previously represented Paramount during the Lansing era.

On Monday, Shell countersued Cipriani for extortion and defamation, claiming that he was the victim of a “shakedown.” But the embattled Paramount prez also introduced several strange subplots in his complaint including that he allegedly received death threats and required a 24/7 security detail while negotiating a $1.5 billion deal for “South Park” streaming rights. Shell’s counterclaim also says former NBCUniversal mogul Ron Meyer told Shell that “that he might be able to convince Cipriani to reduce the amount of his demand … and informed him that Cipriani had been looking for at least $10 million, but that Meyer might be able to get him to accept $5 million to withdraw his threats.” (A source familiar with the situation says Glaser was “the primary facilitator” of the calls from Meyer to Shell.)

If either side’s voluminous court filings are to be believed, the Cipriani v. Shell battle traces back to Glaser, who connected the two men in 2024. From Shell’s perspective, it was an innocuous first meeting and, “Shell neither requested that Cipriani do anything for him nor made promises of any kind.” According to Cipriani’s complaint, he spent the next 18 months doing PR damage control for the executive who had already been fired by NBCUniversal. Throughout that period, according to Cipriani’s complaint,Shell allegedly shared confidential company information with him involving the 10-figure “South Park” and UFC deals as well as the Ellisons’ efforts to acquire Warner Bros.

It’s the Warner Bros. deal that brings the elder Ellison and even President Trump into the narrative. “Plaintiff alleges, upon information and belief, that the $10 billion payment by Oracle and its co-investors to the Trump administration’s Treasury constitutes, in whole or in material part, a quid pro quo (verily, a ‘quid pro bro’) for President Trump’s personal assurance to Lawrence Ellison that the administration would support and facilitate Paramount’s acquisition of WBD — the precise assurance that Shell disclosed to Plaintiff on February 2, 2026,” claim the court docs.

“I’m hoping for liberal jurors who, like me, want America to be free and are not pleased to see a president of the United States behaving like a mob boss,” says Aaronoff. “I’m fighting for RJ’s freedom from oppression. And I think I am fighting for the freedom of the United States because it’s obvious that there is the rot at the top.”

Meanwhile, the investigation into whether or not Shell divulged non-public information to Cipriani continues. Cipriani is reportedly meeting with lawyers at Gibson Dunn, which is conducting the investigation, on Wednesday. A source familiar with the investigation says that Gibson Dunn is most interested in text messages between the two men involving Paramount’s $7 billion-plus streaming rights deal with the UFC.