Court Rejects Intimidation Campaign to Silence Investigative Reporting on Suspicious Loans President’s Company Took from Putin-Tied Lender
Washington, DC – Mincey Bell announces a landmark victory for its client, Truth Social Whistleblower Will Wilkerson, after a trial court in Sarasota, Florida, dismissed Trump Media & Technology Group’s (TMTG) defamation lawsuit against him. Trump Media brought the lawsuit— which also named The Guardian and other major media outlets— after the publication of several articles reporting on a federal criminal investigation related to TMTG’s receipt of two suspicious payments totaling $8 million.
On March 15 and March 17, 2023, The Guardian published two articles stating federal prosecutors in New York were conducting a money laundering investigation related to the payments, which were wired through the Caribbean from Paxum Bank and ES Family Trust, entities with ties to an ally of Russian president Vladimir Putin and a history of providing banking services to the sex worker industry. The articles reported Wilkerson’s statements that the origins of the loans caused alarm at TMTG, and the company’s CFO weighed returning the money. President Trump’s company ultimately kept the suspicious offshore money.
The Florida trial court rejected TMTG’s claims of defamation, finding no evidence of ‘actual malice,’ a constitutional threshold for public figure plaintiffs. The court emphasized that The Guardian’s reporting relied on multiple sources and documentary evidence, including internal emails, and that efforts were made to verify details with federal authorities.
Attorney Patrick Mincey stated, “For years now, the President of the United States has wielded his publicly traded company as a war chest to wage a lawfare campaign and frivolous defamation claims after Mr. Wilkerson exposed voluminous and damning evidence that Putin-tied loans were a financial lifeline to Trump Media. This transparent attempt to intimidate a heroic whistleblower continues to fail. Spectacularly.”
Attorney Stephen Bell stated, “This is the epitome of a SLAPP suit. Trump Media is a public company with a majority owner who is quite literally the most public figure on Earth. Its CEO is a former Congressman, and many of its board members, early shareholders, and advisors are household names who occupy senior roles in the Trump administration. Large law firms that offend the administration receive Executive Orders barring them from entering public buildings; individuals like Wilkerson receive frivolous defamation suits meant to drain their assets and chill their speech. Perhaps most egregious, the public record clearly establishes that Wilkerson’s statements are true. This case is about nothing more than silencing any and all dissent.”
Wilkerson, a co-founder of the President’s tech conglomerate, which owns and operates the social media platform, Truth Social, has been cooperating with numerous law enforcement agencies and regulators under the Securities and Exchange Commission whistleblower program since 2022. Wilkerson helped found the company after President Trump was kicked off Twitter following the events of January 6, 2021. To date, Wilkerson’s revelations to law enforcement have already resulted in more than $50,000,000 in settlements and numerous criminal convictions in connection with President Trump taking the company public prior to his re-election in 2024. The SEC continues to actively litigate against individuals who helped take Trump Media to public markets.
Timeline of Trump Media’s Lawfare Campaign Against Wilkerson
In 2022, Trump Media told the Washington Post that Wilkerson’s allegations about securities violations committed in its public merger were “concocted psychodramas.” Later, the company’s merger partner, Digital World Acquisition Corp., settled with the SEC for $18,000,000 for committing violations Wilkerson exposed to prosecutors.
In 2023, The Guardian and Washington Post published a series of articles detailing Wilkerson’s revelation and cooperation with federal law enforcement concerning $8 million in emergency bridge loans Trump Media received from a Dominica-based bank owned by Anton Postolnikov, nephew to a senior ranking Kremlin official. Despite Trump Media officials questioning the suspicious source of the loans, under President Trump and former U.S. Congressman and CEO Devin Nunes, the company kept the money. Within days of The Guardian’s reporting on the loans, Digital World removed its CEO, Patrick Orlando. According to records filed with the court, Donald Trump Jr. was also aware of the suspicious loans.
Nunes and Trump Media then sued Wilkerson, the media companies, and others seeking more than $3 billion in alleged damages for defamation. Despite a federal court already repeatedly dismissing related defamation claims against The Washington Post for its stories about the Putin-tied loans, and in the face of more than 500 pages of exhibits detailing the criminal money laundering investigation into the suspicious $8 million the President’s company received from the Putin-tied lender—in April 2025, Trump Media amended its complaint against Wilkerson on the eve of a long scheduled hearing where the court was to consider the records filed by Wilkerson which support the allegations.
Media Coverage of Wilkerson’s Whistleblowing
The Guardian – Trump Media executives worried over murky $8m loans, emails reveal (March 17, 2023)
Newsweek – Trump Defamation Suit Torn Apart by Lawyer: ‘Doesn’t Make Any Sense’ (May 23, 2023)
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