The legal maneuvers in Trumpworld never end, and the latest issue concerns the ex-president’s social media company.
Trump, already beset by scathing testimonies at Jan. 6 special committee hearings and criminal and civil investigations in New York and Georgia, may also have to worry about his Twitter counterpart, Truth Social. USA Today reports that Trump and several others close to him, including his son Donald Trump Jr. and a former White House aide, all resigned from the board of Truth Social shortly before subpoenas from the Securities and Exchange Commission and submitted to a federal grand jury in New York seeking information about the company’s operations.
Trump launched Truth Social last year as an alternative to Twitter, from which he was banned for repeatedly violating the platform’s policy of spreading false information, particularly about the 2020 election and the Jan. 6 riot. But that’s not why the SEC and potential federal prosecutors are interested in the company.
From the US today
The investigation appears to be related to a proposed merger between Trump’s media company and a blank check company called Digital World Acquisitions Corp., according to a recent regulatory filing.
Digital World is a Special Purpose Acquisition Company or SPAC. Companies like this raise money to go public with the intention of finding a company to merge with. SPACs are prohibited from finding a partner before going public, but the SEC is investigating possible talks between the two companies that may have been premature, according to a filing.
According to the New York Times, the merger between the two companies could reportedly mean $1.3 billion in capital and a public listing for the new company.
Truth Social was promoted by Trump as a Twitter alternative for those who didn’t want their content filtered and moderated – in other words, Twitter with even less onerous rules to keep trolls in line. A recent article in Forbes described it in less flattering terms, calling it “a political ad campaign disguised as an open discussion platform.” The platform is estimated to have around 2 million users, compared to Twitter’s 300 million active accounts.