The angry Florida man who perpetually has “nothing to hide” is reportedly trying to squirm his way out of yet another potentially dubious business deal.
New Florida state fillings first reported on by The Sarasota Herald-Tribune reportedly show Donald Trump — who once served as chairman and a board member of his burgeoning tech company Trump Media and Technology Group — jumped ship and bailed on his board seat just weeks before the company received subpoenas from the Securities and Exchange Commission and a federal grand jury in Manhattan.
Trump’s son and former fellow TMTG board member Donald Trump Jr. was another one of six total TMTG board members reportedly removed around the same time. As of writing, Trump bootlicker and TMTG CEO Devin Nunes, and CFO Phillip Juhan stand alone as the sole TMTG board of directors remaining, according to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune report. Talk about cleaning house.
The reported board removals allegedly came less than three weeks before the SEC served TMTG with a series of subpoenas. A federal grand jury in New York reportedly issued its own subpoenas against TMTG just days later. Some of those grand jury subpoenas, according to public filings, targeted former and current TTMG employees individually.
TRUMP NEWS: Donald Trump removed himself from the board of his media company on June 8, a few weeks before the SEC and a grand jury in Manhattan issued federal subpoenas to the company. Also removed was Donald Trump, Jr. More coming in the @HeraldTribune
— Chris Anderson (@ChrisA0213) July 7, 2022
Truth Social, the social media wing of the TMTG tech and entertainment chimera, issued a statement Thursday forcefully denying Trump had left TMTG’s board of directors. At the same time though, TMTG’s board of directors page on its website remains mysteriously blank. TMTG dismissed the Sarasota-Herald Triune story as “fake news.”
“Contrary to an ‘exclusive’ fake news story filed by a reporter who is incapable of understanding state business records, Donald Trump remains on the board of Trump Media and Technology Group,” the Truth Social post reads. “In fact, the reporter acknowledges that Trump’s title is ‘chairman,’ but apparently has no clue what a chairman presides over. Hopefully this helps clarify things.”
Since that statement does the exact opposite of clarifying the situation, Gizmodo reached out to TMTG for more details. We’ve yet to hear back.
As a quick refresher for anyone sane enough to keep their heads away from this train wreck, TMTG and Digital World Acquisition Group, (a shell company Trump’s trying to merge with to take his venture public via SPAC) have been the subject of an escalating SEC investigation for nearly a year. Both organisations have received a splattering of subpoenas that threatens to uproot the entire contorted business deal.
The SEC subpoenas aimed at TMTG reportedly seek documents related to the company’s business dealings with DWAC. The grand jury subpoenas reportedly sought a “subset” of the documents demanded in subpoenas to DWAC. For those not keeping score, DWAC revealed it, and members of its board of directors found themselves on the receiving end of subpoenas from the SEC and federal grand jury back in late June.
In other words, things aren’t looking great for TMTG, DWAC, or their proposed SPAC baby. DWAC admitted as much itself when it first revealed its subpoena situation.
“These subpoenas, and the underlying investigations by the Department of Justice and the SEC, can be expected to delay the effectiveness of the Registration Statement, which could materially delay, materially impede, or prevent the consummation of the Business Combination,” DWAC said at the time.
The Sarasota Herald-Tribune sent reporters to TMTG’s office in Sarasota, Florida, and reportedly found a ghost town with no reference to the company’s name.