Truth Social sues Washington Post for defamation
Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG), the parent company of former US president Donald Trump’s Truth Social platform, is suing the Washington Post for defamation, alleging the paper’s recent “egregious hit piece” about the platform threatens its very existence. The lawsuit, filed on Saturday in Florida’s Twelfth Circuit, seeks $3.78 billion in compensatory and punitive damages.
The Post’s May 13 article, ‘Trust linked to porn-friendly bank could gain a stake in Trump’s Truth Social,’ is at the center of the lawsuit, which claims the news outlet “falsely accused TMTG of securities fraud and other wrongdoing.”
The story claimed TMTG concealed from shareholders the fact that it was taking out an allegedly questionable loan from Paxum bank, referred to as a “porn-friendly bank,” that would give a sinister-sounding Russian banker a controlling stake in Truth Social. According to WaPo, the company also neglected to tell shareholders that it had paid a hefty finders’ fee to the CEO of Digital World Acquisition Corporation (DWAC) – the special purpose acquisition corporation whose merger with TMTG was announced over a year ago – for helping arrange the loan from the bank.
All of these allegedly dubious dealings were supposedly kept hidden from the Securities and Exchange Commission.
According to TMTG’s lawsuit, the allegations are based on fictional claims made by disgruntled ex-employee Will Wilkerson. The 'evidence' includes fake documents, as well as a previous falsehood-riddled story published by The Guardian in which it was alleged that federal prosecutors were investigating TMTG for potential money laundering violations.
Despite knowing that TMTG CEO Devin Nunes had already sued that paper for defamation over the money laundering story, WaPo ran with its claims and piled more on top, the lawsuit states.
“WaPo’s false criminal charges exposed TMTG to public ridicule, contempt and distrust, and injured TMTG’s business and reputation,” the suit claims, describing the “egregious hit piece” as the culmination of a “years-long crusade against TMTG characterized by the concealment of relevant information in its possession” amounting to an “existential threat” against the company.
The suit also claims the malicious story dissuaded potential users of Truth Social from joining the platform, delaying TMTG’s planned merger with DWAC. The story allegedly even triggered a phone call from JP Morgan Chase asking about the company’s transactions with Paxum Bank.
Trump had previously claimed Truth Social was doing “phenomenally well,” declining Twitter CEO Elon Musk’s offer to return to his account last year. The former president is contractually obligated to give his 5 million Truth Social followers a six-hour exclusive of all his social media messages.
