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Trump left board of Trump Media and Technology Group weeks before subpoenas of social media company

Donald Trump seems to have dodged subpoenas from the SEC and a federal grand jury in Manhattan, as the former president ditched his position on TMTG's board of directors.

Asif Khan

July 8, 2022 9:50 AM

STEPHEN CROWLEY/NEW YORK TIMES/REDUX

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Former President Donald Trump has left the board of Trump Media and Technology Group, his social media company that is being investigated by the SEC and a grand jury in Manhattan. In a June 8 filing with Florida's Department of State's Divisions of Corporations, the company dislosed that Donald Trump departed from his chairman of the board role along with other board members Donald Trump Jr., Kayshap Patel, Scott Glabe, Wes Moss, and Andrew Northwall. These exits from the board occurred just three weeks before Trump Media and Technology Group was served subpoenas from the SEC and a federal grand jury.

Trump Media and Technology Group's Truth Social app posted a statement to the platform denying the reports that Trump is no longer the company's chairman of the board:

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. 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.

While Truth Social's statement certainly uses all the buzzwords that one would expect to see, a glance at Trump Media and Technology Group's website shows an entirely blank page for the Board of Directors. The link to the Florida filing is now broken, so it is possible that the company is attempting to do some damage control.

The Sarasota Herald-Tribune was the first outlet to report Trump's departure from the board yesterday morning, The criminal probe into Trump Media and Technology Group's SPAC deal with Digital World Acquisition Corp. (DWAC) has been known about publicly for several weeks, but DWAC apparently found out about the investigations on June 16, 2022. That would be 8 days after Trump left TMTG's board. 

This wouldn't be the first time Trump dumped his problems into the laps of shareholders. The DWAC SPAC deal is still up in the air, which has shares of the company down over 50% year-to-date. 

This article is only meant for educational purposes, and should not be taken as investment advice. Please consider your own investment time horizon, risk tolerance, and consult with a financial advisor before acting on this information.

Asif Khan

CEO/EIC/EIEIO

Asif Khan is the CEO, EIC, and majority shareholder of Shacknews. He began his career in video game journalism as a freelancer in 2001 for Tendobox.com. Asif is a CPA and was formerly an investment adviser representative. After much success in his own personal investments, he retired from his day job in financial services and is currently focused on new private investments. His favorite PC game of all time is Duke Nukem 3D, and he is an unapologetic fan of most things Nintendo. Asif first frequented the Shack when it was sCary's Shugashack to find all things Quake. When he is not immersed in investments or gaming he is a purveyor of fine electronic music. Asif also has an irrational love of Cleveland sports.