The company behind Donald Trump’s Truth Social platform has filed a $3.78 billion defamation lawsuit against the Washington Post.
The lawsuit, filed by Trump Media & Technology Group in Florida’s Sarasota County, claims that a May 13 article that alleged the company may have committed securities fraud was false and defamatory, and posed an “existential threat,” The Independent reports.
The article titled “Trust linked to porn-friendly bank could gain a stake in Trump’s Truth Social” alleged that the company had concealed key details about a proposed merger from the Securities and Exchange Commission and shareholders, citing internal documents provided by a whistleblower.
The lawsuit claims the Washington Post had been on a “years-long crusade” to undermine Trump Media, which was founded in February 2021.
Digital World Acquisition, the SPAC trying to take Trump’s company public, was up slightly in early afternoon trading. The deal with Trump Media has been under SEC scrutiny for nearly a year and the regulator has yet to sign off on Digital World’s registration statement – which the Trump camp has attributed to a politically motivated attack.
One of the key points in the SEC investigation is whether the SPAC had any merger discussions with the target before Digital World made its IPO in September 2021. Such discussions would be illegal. Read more.
