Trump to be deposed in dispute with media company co-founders

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is scheduled to be deposed later this month by lawyers for co-founders of his social media company as part of a dispute over ownership in Trump Media & Technology Group, which went public last week.

A notice filed with Delaware's Court of Chancery, where the co-founders sued Trump Media, said the deposition is scheduled for April 15 at 10 a.m. ET in New York, which is also the scheduled start of Trump's first criminal trial.

Depositions often get rescheduled.

Trump campaign spokespersons did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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The notice of deposition did not specify the questions and Christopher Clark, an attorney for the co-founders, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump Media, which owns the Truth Social messaging platform, was sued in February by Andy Litinsky and Wes Moss, two former contestants on Trump's reality TV show "The Apprentice." They said in 2021 they were pledged 8.6% of pre-merger Trump Media stock for helping to launch the company.

The co-founders accused Trump Media of denying them their stake, which they own through their United Atlantic Ventures partnership, by trying to dilute their stock and by preventing them from selling it.

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Trump Media sued Litinsky and Moss in Florida on March 24, and is seeking to strip them of their stock, which it said they failed to earn due to mismanagement.

Delaware judge Sam Glasscock said this week he expects to hold a hearing to resolve the dispute before the end of April.

Trump owned 90% of the social media company prior to its merger last month with a blank check firm that took the company public. He owns a majority of the merged company.

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Since the merger, the company's stock has soared in value despite its weak underlying finances, driven by speculators betting on the company's link to the former president.

In midday trade on Thursday, Trump Media was down 4.2% at $46.70, valuing the company at more than $6 billion.