Trump, Two Aides Sued Over ‘Profoundly Corrupt’ Truth Social ‘Scheme’

Two groups sued President Donald Trump and two top aides Wednesday after the president’s social media platform, Truth Social, began selling Wall Street and investment firms early, premium access to the president’s public statements.

The Freedom of the Press Foundation, a non-profit press freedom group, and The Intercept, a left-wing non-profit media outlet, filed the lawsuit Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The lawsuit names Trump, executive assistant Natalie Harp and deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino — two aides who “regularly publish” on his behalf via his Truth Social account — the Executive Office of the President and the White House Office.

The plaintiffs allege the new Truth Social service, which went live earlier in August and gives subscribers “fractionally faster” access to the president’s public statements, is corrupt and unconstitutional. Trump’s social media company, Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), owns Truth Social. (RELATED: They Said They Would Drain The Swamp. They’re Laughing, Playing In The Muck)

“This scheme is profoundly corrupt. The President stands to gain financially by giving ‘market-moving’ government information to those who are willing and able to pay his personal company,” the lawsuit alleges.

The service, “Truth API,” is a licensed, paid-for data feed that gives banks and trading firms access to statements from Trump and ten of the most influential Truth Social accounts in milliseconds. These include Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Department of Health and Human Services Sec. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., among others. A subscription can cost up to $100,000 a month.

Some Wall Street firms and hedge funds rely on high-frequency trading, which allows them to profit off the slightest market fluctuations. A millisecond advantage could potentially make or break these algorithmically driven trades. Since Trump’s Truth Social posts are often “market-moving,” like an announcement that the U.S. is in peace talks with Iran or a post that includes a company’s stock ticker, critics believe the new service opens the door to unethical market manipulation.

The Donald J. Trump Revocable ‌Trust, which his children oversee, reportedly holds roughly 114.75 million shares, or 41 percent of all outstanding stock, in TMTG.

“A president selling priority access to news he himself generates for the benefit of a private company he controls is so blatantly corrupt and unconstitutional that it would have been hard to even fathom just a few years ago,” Freedom of the Press Foundation Chief of Advocacy Seth Stern said in a statement. “This brazen grift targets not only the markets but the First Amendment. It cannot stand.”

TMTG said in August that the service has 10 subscribers so far.

The lawsuit challenges the service’s constitutional merits.

“The First Amendment guarantees equal access to the President’s public announcements, and even content-neutral burdens on that access must be narrowly tailored to serve a significant government interest. There is no legitimate interest, let alone a significant one, in permitting President Trump to profit from selling government information,” the lawsuit states.

“Similarly, the Fifth Amendment prohibits charging unreasonable sums that cannot be justified to offset the cost of the government benefit, and granting preferential access to crucial government information for arbitrary and irrational reasons, as is the case here,” the lawsuit continues.

“Nothing could be more antithetical to the free, independent press than the president charging for early access to his public announcements,” The Intercept‘s Chief Legal Officer, David Bralow, said in a statement. “Through this litigation, The Intercept and its journalists are proud to hold the line on a fundamental proposition: public information belongs to the public.”

The White House did not respond to the Daily Caller’s request for comment by the time of publication.