Federal investigators examined Trump Media for possible money laundering

Even if Trump Media and its officers face no criminal exposure for the transactions, the optics of borrowing money from potentially unsavoury sources through opaque conduits could cloud Trump’s image as he seeks to recapture the White House in 2024.

Federal prosecutors’ interest in the two payments appear to have started when Wilkerson, through his attorneys Patrick Mincey, Stephen Bell and Phil Brewster, alerted the US attorney’s office for the southern district of New York to the payments on 23 October 2022. Picture: AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Federal prosecutors in New York involved in the criminal investigation into Donald Trump’s social media company last year started examining whether it violated money laundering statutes.

That was in connection with the acceptance of $8m (€7.45m) with suspected Russian ties, according to sources familiar with the matter.