Parler reportedly offered the Trump Organization a 40% stake in the then president’s posts.

Parler, the social network popular among members of the far right, was well aware that having then-President Donald Trump as a user would work wonders because of his popularity. And it was ready to win him over with a strategy that appealed to the president, who often praised his perceived ability to make business deals. As part of talks to create Parler Trump’s primary social network, the company eventually offered the Trump organization a 40% stake in the company, BuzzFeed News reports. As part of the deal, Trump would commit to post everything on Parler first and wait at least four hours before publishing it on another platform.

It’s unclear how much the former president became involved in the negotiations, but BuzzFeed’s coverage makes it clear that these weren’t one-off, informal talks. Talks between the Trump organization and Parler began last summer. It appears that former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale played a key role as he had already considered creating an account for the president on the site in 2019. Parscale was the one who, along with campaign attorney Alex Cannon, later met with Parler CEO John Matze and two shareholders to discuss the idea. Matze said earlier this week that he had been fired from the company.

As soon as it got word of the negotiations, White House counsel’s office immediately put a brake on talks, warning that any deal would be in violation of ethical rules. But discussions started again after Trump lost re-election. All conversations apparently ended after the uprising at the Capitol, and both Google and Apple removed Parler from their app stores. It was later taken offline when Amazon decided to stop hosting it. Parscale told BuzzFeed that Trump “was never part of the discussions” and that they “were never that substantive.” Still, at least some experts say that only the negotiations and subsequent bid warrant an investigation. “While then President Trump bragged that ethical rules did not apply to him, bribery laws do apply, and courts have ruled that Trump’s social media posts constituted official business while in office,” said Scott Amey, general counsel at the project. on Government Oversight, a watchdog group.

Last month, Matze said in a lawsuit that Trump had considered creating an account on Parler under the pseudonym ‘Person X’. Matze claimed that Amazon Web Services was aware of that possibility and stopped hosting the site as a way to deny Trump a social media platform. Amazon denied the allegation, insisting that the suspension had “nothing to do with politics.”