Trump secretly left his social media company's board shortly before federal subpoenas dropped

Donald Trump removed himself from the board of his social media company just weeks before the company was issued federal subpoenas.

The former president was removed as chairman of the Trump Media and Technology Group, along with five other board members, on June 8, records show, and the Securities and Exchange Commission issued a subpoena to the Florida-based company on June 27 and then a grand jury in the Southern District of New York issued another on July 1, reported the Herald-Tribune.

The investigation appears to be related to the proposed $1.3 billion merger between the media company and a special purpose acquisition company called Digital World Acquisitions Corp., whose directors were served subpoenas seeking similar records to those sought from Trump Media, which issued a statement pledging full cooperation.

However, that statement did not mention Trump -- who had a licensing deal with the company to use his name -- was no longer chairman, but still listed former Rep. Devin Nunes as chief executive officer and businessman Phillip Juhan as chief financial officer.

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The other board members removed with Trump were Kashyap Patel, a Nunes ally who served various roles in the former president's administration, Donald Trump Jr., and former Trump assistant Scott Glabe.

SPACs are blank-check companies formed to raise money to go public with the intent to find a company to merge with, but they are prohibited from finding a partner before going public, and the SEC is investigating whether Digital World Acquisitions and Trump Media held premature talks about such a deal.