Achi news desk-
A media company with ties to former President Donald Trump has gotten off to a rocky start with share prices tanking and the company’s value dwindling by the day.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., doesn’t seem eager to discuss the struggling business, years after she bought shares in a company that helped Trump’s business go public on the Nasdaq.
Asked by CNBC and NBC News, Greene would not say what happened to her stock in Digital World Acquisition Corp., which, through a merger with Trump Media, recently began trading publicly as DJT. The share price has fallen by at least 45% a month so far.
Trump Media is the parent company of the former president’s social media app, Truth Social. DWAC shareholders voted to approve the merger with Trump Media to take the company public on March 22, with the company debuting on the Nasdaq on March 26.
Greene is one of two members of Congress who disclosed the purchase of shares in Digital World Acquisition Corp. She and Rep. Larry Bucshon, R-Ind., bought stock in the company in October 2021, according to financial disclosure reports, the one month the company announced that it had completed an agreement with Trump Media to merge the two entities, with the aim of Trump’s business trading publicly on the stock market.
Greene bought shares of DWAC on October 22, 2021, a few days after the merger announcement, in an amount ranging from $15,000 to $50,000, according to his official congressional financial disclosure filing. DWAC stock opened that day’s trading at $118.80 and finished around $67.
Bucshon bought DWAC stock on Oct. 25, 2021, for anywhere between $1,000 and $15,000, according to a financial disclosure. DWAC stock closed the day at around $83.
If either of the two lawmakers are still investors with DWAC now, they could have lost thousands — up to $32,500 in Greene’s case — according to Chris Josephs, co-founder of stock trading app Autopilot . Josephs noted that Bucshon could have lost up to $8,900 with the stock price tanking.
A spokesperson for Bucshon confirmed to CNBC and NBC News that the Indiana lawmaker still owns stock in the now-merged media company despite the plunging stock price.
“Congressman Bucshon has taken no further action regarding his investment in DWAC since his initial purchase in October 2021, and has fully complied with all disclosure requirements required under federal law that involved in that trade,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
He did not return follow-up questions about why Bucshon continued to hold the stock, which closed at $32 on Thursday, marking a 54% drop in share price since the stock went public on the Nasdaq in March. The company has also erased all of its gains since shares began trading under the ticker DJT at $70.90.
Bucshon’s most recent annual financial disclosure shows he entered 2023 with DWAC stock worth between $1,001 and $15,000.
But Greene would not say what has happened to her stock since her original purchase and her public disclosures have not shown she sold DWAC or Trump media stock, according to documents archived by LegiStorm, raising questions among ethics lawyers about what happened to Greene’s stock.
Asked about the status of her DWAC stock, Greene spokesman Nick Dyer said in an email that Greene “does not currently hold any stock as reflected in her financial disclosure.”
She did not return subsequent requests for comment about what happened to her shares in the company.
Greene also would not say when asked by NBC News on Wednesday what happened to her Trump Media stock. “This is a waste of time. I think you can read my reports and see what’s mine,” he said.
“Where’s her stock?” Richard Painter, a former George W. Bush White House ethics lawyer, said in a telephone interview.
He and other ethics lawyers offered some possible reasons why Greene would not have included the stock in her recent disclosures.
If he still owns DWAC stock and the estimated value of the asset is below $1,000, it would not need to be disclosed, according to Campaign Legal Center general counsel Kedric Payne.
Another plausible scenario is that Greene recently sold his stock. In that case, she would not have to disclose the sale for up to 45 days, according to Painter. She also could have lost the asset during her 2022 divorce proceedings with her then-husband, Painter said, noting that if the stock was given away through a divorce settlement, it might not be considered an asset transaction. Greene finalized her divorce in December 2022, according to Business Insider.
“She has to explain what happened,” Painter explained.
Lawmakers are not prohibited from trading or holding individual stocks and other investments. But under the STOCK Act, members of Congress must report any trades within 45 days.
Some members of Congress and outside groups have long argued that members of Congress should not be allowed to trade stock while serving as elected officials. But legislation that would ban them from trading individual stocks has languished in Congress.
— NBC News’ Scott Wong contributed to this story.
