The Democrat who serves as the chair of the House Oversight Committee has written social-media platform Parler stating that the Committee is demanding that the company reveal its investors and creditors.
On Monday, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) wrote a letter to Parler’s COO, Jeffrey Wernick, stating, “In the weeks leading up to the assault on the Capitol on January 6, Parler users actively took to the platform to call for violence and even ‘civil war.’ A recent analysis by USA Today shows a strong connection between President Trump’s speech at the January 6 rally and a significant uptick in calls for violence on Parler. Immediately after President Trump exhorted his supporters to ‘show strength’ during his speech, the term ‘civil war’ surged into one of the top five most frequently used terms on Parler. One user wrote, ‘Be men fight back and f*** them up. Civil war is upon us.’”
Citing “numerous Parler users” who have been “arrested and charged for their roles,” and claiming, “Parler reportedly allowed Russian disinformation to flourish on its platform prior to the November 2020 election,” Maloney continued: “Individuals with ties to the January 6 assault should not — and must not — be allowed to hide behind the veil of anonymity provided by shell companies. In addition, according to a recent press report, the ‘Trump Organization negotiated on behalf of then-president Donald Trump to make Parler his primary social network, but it had a condition: an ownership stake in return for joining.’ These negotiations reportedly occurred while President Trump was still in office, which experts have warned raise legal concerns regarding anti-bribery laws.”
Maloney then wrote that the committee wanted:
- A capitalization table showing individuals and entities with direct or indirect ownership interests in Parler, and a shareholder register maintained by you or any third-party on your behalf;
- A list of all individuals and entities who have or had any control over Parler;
- A list of Parler’s creditors which hold or held a debt of at least $10,000, including the type of debt funding, amount owed, maturity, and applicable interest rate;
- All agreements, including but not limited to consulting, service, or business agreements, that Parler has with any Russian individual or entity;
- All documents and communications referring or relating to proposed or completed financing, gifts, or investment in Parler directly or indirectly by any Russian individual or entity; and
- All documents and communications referring to relating to a proposal to provide President Donald Trump with an ownership stake in Parler.
In January, Parler was removed from App stores hosted by Apple and Google. Amazon’s cloud services division removed Parler soon after that.
“Parler said it had acquired more than 12 million users by the close of the year. But the list never grew to include the former president, who was reportedly dissuaded from joining before the election by aides, including son-in-law Jared Kushner and Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino,” Mediaite reported.