An account in exchange for an ownership interest in the company. That’s the deal Parler reportedly offered then-President Donald Trump to make the online haven for filed right-wingers and extremists his primary social network.
The Trump organization, negotiating on behalf of the president, was offered a 40% stake in Parler if Trump created an account on the platform, although nothing was ever finalized, according to documents reviewed by Buzzfeed News and four sources familiar with the considerations that spoke to the outlet. The talks started sometime last summer and then started again in November after Trump lost the 2020 presidential election, ostensibly so that he would have another online soapbox to blitz (and take advantage of) are conspiracy theories of electoral fraud. According to Buzzfeed News, it is not clear how much Trump personally participated in these negotiations.
But while nothing came of the deal in the end just by nurturing those discussions, the Trump Organization could get serious legal headaches. The whole mess is almost certainly in violation of anti-bribery laws. It also causes flashbacks to when Trump tried to bolster Microsoft to give the U.S. Treasury a discount on every TikTok deal it has struck.
It turns out that if you put a corrupt businessman in charge of a country, he is abusing his power to try to make money. Who would blast?
According to the outlet, Trump’s representatives colluded with Parler to help the platform compete with mainstream social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. The logic is that if Trump posted his bullshit on Parler first before sharing it on other platforms, Parler took advantage of that exclusivity while also giving him a direct line with some of his staunchest supporters who had already been kicked off all over the place online.
G / O Media can receive a commission
Parler sees himself as “the world’s foremost platform for free speech,” unchained by the so-called censorship and oppressive moderation policies of other platforms. Or at least that’s what it claimed to be back when the platform was still functioning. It has not been possible since the beginning of January, when Parler launched from Amazon’s web services, as well as Google’s and Apple’s app stores, as it had not put in place meaningful moderation policies that would prevent users from posting the kind of violent content that allegedly attack on Capitol Hill last month. While Parler has since found a new web host—Epik, the domain name registrar behind other extremist cesspools like Gab and the Daily Stormer — the site remained little more than a bulletin board for a handful of provocative posts from Parler’s admins and their chosen right-wing pundits.
At a meeting at the White House last year, former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale was the first to suggest that Trump would get an ownership stake in the deal with Parler, according to a source familiar with the negotiations that spoke with Buzzfeed News. Four sources told the outlet that Parscale and Trump campaign attorney Alex Cannon met John Matze, the then CEO of Parler and shareholders Dan Bongino and Jeffrey Wernick at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida to discuss a possible deal. According to Parscale, Trump was never in the picture.
“The president was never part of the discussions,” he told BuzzFeed News. “The discussions have never been so substantive. And this was just one of many things the campaign looked at to tackle Silicon Valley’s cancellation culture. ”
After the election, Trump’s team rethought the idea, according to two people familiar with the issue, but negotiations with Parler broke up after pro-Trump insurgents carried out a deadly raid on the Capitol in an effort to secure the election results. overthrow. Before the deal fell apart, Parler offered the Trump Organization a 40% stake in the company, according to a December paper reviewed by Buzzfeed News and two sources with direct knowledge of the talks. Half of that stake would be split immediately after the deal was closed, while the other half would be split into tranches over the 24-month period of the deal. In return, Trump would agree to post all of his online content on Parler for at least four hours before posting it elsewhere. Parler also asked Trump to shout Parler when he posted on other social media platforms or emailed his supporters, gave Parler access to his email lists for promotional purposes, and introduced the company to potential investors or advertisers.
Wernick confirmed to the outlet that Parler was in talks with the Trump Organization about setting up Trump on the platform, but said the former president was not involved in these discussions. He also disputed Buzzfeed News’ coverage, but did not go into details about the information he claimed was false.
“We’ve talked to several people about possible interests in the company for producing certain things,” said Wernick.
Scott Amey, general counsel of the impartial watchdog Project on Government Oversight, told the outlet that the news warrants further investigation and “an immediate criminal 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 he was in office, he said. His posts were a preferred method for the White House to communicate with the public. If the offer included anything valuable and Trump planned to post on a social media platform while still in office, that would almost certainly be illegal and would have to be held accountable. “
Parler did not immediately respond to Gizmodo’s request for comment.
You didn’t really expect the Trump drama to be over now that he left the White House, right? These probably won’t be the last under-the-table transactions to surface from his tenure, and all we can do is hope they all see their day in court.
[Buzzfeed News]