Some current and former members of Trump Media & Technology Group were also subpoenaed by the grand jury in New York
Afederal grand jury in New York summoned former US president Donald Trump’s media company in connection with a criminal investigation, according to a July 1 disclosure.
Trump Media and Technology Group was served a subpoena by the Manhattan grand jury on June 30, according to a filing by Digital World Acquisition Corp. In connection with a civil investigation, the Securities and Exchange Commission this week has issued a subpoena to the Trump Organization, according to DWAC.
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The DWAC is a blank check company. The term ‘blank check company’ refers to such firms which are development stage with no clear goals or objectives, or one whose business plan is to merge or acquire another unnamed business, group of businesses, or individual.
A few current and former TMTG employees, according to DWAC, have lately been served grand jury subpoenas. On July 1, TMTG declared that it will abide by the subpoenas and that none of them were directed at its CEO, former US Representative Devin Nunes or chairman, Donald Trump.
The filling came a few days after DWAC warned that the government’s probes would stall or possibly thwart its merger with Trump’s newly established business, which features Truth Social, a social networking platform meant to be a Twitter substitute.
However, the agreement between DWAC and Trump Media is being looked into by the Justice Department and the SEC, which oversees the stock market.
It was reported that Trump’s business would have access to possibly billions of dollars on the public equity markets by combining with DWAC.
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US Senator Elizabeth Warren was one of the first politicians to criticise the Trump-DWAC agreement. She wrote to Gary Gensler, the chairman of the SEC, in November last year, requesting an investigation, claiming that DWAC may have committed securities violations by holding private and undisclosed discussions about the merger as early as May 2021, while failing to mention this information in SEC filing and other public statements.
According to recent reports, the grand jury served subpoenas to every member of DWAC’s board of directors on June 16, the company said in a securities filing this week.
As per DWAC, the grand jury demanded the same papers that the SEC had already requested as part of its civil investigation.
The SEC had already asked for identical papers from the grand jury as part of its civil investigation, according to DWAC.
Meanwhile, DWAC disclosed this week that Bruce J. Garelick, a board member, had informed management the week before he would step down from the board. According to the corporate filing, Garelick stated that his resignation was not the consequence of any dispute with Digital World’s operations, rules, or procedures.
