Shares Plummet in Company Tasked with Taking Trump’s Truth Social Public Amid Grand Jury Subpoenas

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Former President Donald Trump hit another setback in efforts to merge his media company, Trump Media & Technology Group, with Digital World Acquisition Corp. – a move aimed at taking Trump’s social media startup, Truth Social, public.

Digital Word, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), revealed in a “filing Monday that its board members have received subpoenas from a federal grand jury in the Southern District of New York related to due diligence regarding the deal,” reported CNN.

The news of the subpoenas sent shares of the blank-check company plummeting some 10 percent on Monday.

“The stock has now lost more than half its value this year, adding to doubts about the merger going through,” CNN’s Paul R. La Monica noted of the news.

Trump Media Technology Group released a statement saying:

TMTG is focused on reclaiming the American people’s right to free expression. Every day, our team works tirelessly to sustain Truth Social’s rapid growth, onboard new users, and add new features. We encourage — and will cooperate with — oversight that supports the SEC’s important mission of protecting retail investors.

The subpoenas to each board director is the latest setback in an already complicated merger as both the SEC and Justice Department have already announced investigations into Digital World Acquisition Corp.

Axios’ Dan Primark explained what is at the heart of the government investigations into the merger, which some on the right have baselessly claimed are politically motivated.

“There have been some attempts to frame these investigations in political terms, but they appear to be more about apolitical securities law,” Primark notes. “Namely, that blank check companies can’t court potential targets prior to their own IPOs — which is something Digital World Acquisition is speculated to have done,” he concludes.

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