Why Did Donald Trump Leave Board Of Trump Media and Technology Group?

Documents showed that former President Donald Trump left the board of Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG) last month.

He stepped down as the director from the board just weeks before the firm was served with subpoenas from federal authorities, reported Reuters. According to a June 8 filing with the Florida Department of State’s Division of Corporations, Trump was one of the six board members removed, reported CNBC. The former President's son Donald Trump Jr. also left the board. Others who stepped down were Kashyap Patel, Wes Moss, Scott Glabe and Andrew Northwall.

The company’s social media app, Truth Social, which was intended to be an alternative to Twitter, posted a statement Thursday denying that Trump had left the board. As of Thursday afternoon, the “Board of Directors” page on Trump Media’s website appeared blank.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) served Trump Media and Technology Group with a subpoena on June 27, and three days later, a federal grand jury in Manhattan issued a subpoena to the firm. Generally, grand jury subpoenas indicate that a criminal investigation is going on.

A few days ago, the company said that none of the subpoenas were directed at Trump. The subpoenas seem to be related to a proposed merger between Trump's company and Digital World Acquisition Corp (DWAC). It recently disclosed the connection with a criminal investigation. Before that, DWAC said that the government investigations could delay or even prevent its merger with Trump’s company that is newly formed.

The SEC, which regulates the stock market, and the Justice Department are investigating the deal between Trump's firm and DWAC. Trump’s firm would gain access to potentially billions of dollars on public equities markets by merging with DWAC. It is a kind of shell company called a special purpose acquisition company or SPAC.

In November, it was Senator Elizabeth Warren who was among the first to criticize the deal. She wrote to SEC Chair Gary Gensler, telling him that DWAC “may have committed securities violations." According to Warren, the securities might have been violated by holding "private and undisclosed discussions about the merger as early as May 2021, while omitting this information in (SEC) filing and other public statements.”