Trump company imperiled as investigators zero in on 'depraved'  scheme

Congressional investigators have opened multiple probes into Trump Media & Technology Group over a plan to sell Wall Street firms early access to President Donald Trump's market-moving social media posts.

The scheme is called Truth API. Set to launch August 1, it charges up to $100,000 a month for milliseconds-faster access to Trump's Truth Social posts, marketed to hedge funds and high-frequency trading firms.

Trump owns roughly 41% of Trump Media through a trust he controls, a letter from House Judiciary Committee ranking member Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) noted. That means nearly half of every subscription fee flows directly to him.

"Markets already move on Truth Social posts," Trump Media interim chief executive Kevin McGurn told CNBC when the company announced the product on July 16.

"This White House-Wall Street-Trump-Business feedback loop represents the depraved essence of insider trading," Raskin wrote in the Thursday letter to Trump Media demanding company records.

"Trump Media will soon be selling early access to President Trump's so-called 'Truth' missives to the most sophisticated investment firms in the world," Raskin wrote.

"This insider-information scheme will enable Wall Street to profit from the President's frequent market-moving posts on major businesses and cash in on swings in stock prices caused by the President's buying and selling (or pumping and dumping, if you prefer) of publicly traded stocks to unwitting retail investors," the lawmaker added.

Virginia Canter, an ethics attorney with Democracy Defenders Fund, was among those who flagged the conflict when CNBC reported on the July 16 announcement.

"It's a huge conflict of interest," Canter told CNBC.

Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) pressed the Securities and Exchange Commission for an investigation, and Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN) demanded action from both the Justice Department and the SEC. Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Adam Schiff (D-CA) sent their own letter to the SEC.

"Presidential communications capable of affecting stocks, bonds, oil, currencies, and other assets should not become a premium financial product that gives wealthy institutions a millisecond advantage over retail investors," Torres wrote.

"Even Donald Trump's teleprompter operator has gotten in on the frenetic self-enrichment at the White House, earning tens of thousands of dollars by betting on the contents of President Trump's speeches on the prediction market Kalshi," Raskin wrote in the letter.

That operator, Gabriel Perez, left his post after ABC News reported he had won more than $100,000 betting on what Trump would say in major speeches.

"The President of the United States should be using the office to 'take Care' that laws are enforced and to advance the public interest," Raskin observed. "Instead, President Trump is, once again, using it to enrich in spectacular fashion himself, his family, and corporate cronies while also destroying the integrity of financial markets in the process."

Raskin has given Trump Media until Aug. 13 to produce the records he is demanding, according to the letter.