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The CEO of social media site Gab has claimed he rejected a proposal in January to have former president Donald Trump on the platform.

Andrew Torba, who founded the service in 2016, said that representatives of the former president's senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner made the pitch: equity in the business in exchange for Trump to sign up and post his opinions to the site.

As first reported by Forbes, Torba said that he had declined the telephone call proposal immediately, saying: 'No, I'm not entertaining that."

And it didn't sound likely the CEO would change his mind in the future. He added: "Gab's not for sale. There's no amount that would get me to sell. Zero."

Sharing the Forbes story on his Gab profile this week, Torba wrote: "As I have said many times, [Trump] is welcome to join Gab anytime and speak freely. But Gab is not for sale and under no circumstances will Gab change our free speech policies, Mr. Kushner."

Gab is broadly pitched as a conservative-friendly alternative to mainstream social sites such as Twitter or Facebook, and its looser moderation policies has left it an attractive option for right-wing personalities, conspiracy theorists and white nationalists.

It's website describes Torba as a "Christian technology entrepreneur" who launched it after seeing a rise in censorship from other platforms during the 2016 election.

There is an account for Donald Trump on the website already, but Torba has previously said the profile is not used by the former president himself.

In February, Torba accused Kushner of "actively trying to keep Trump off Gab" and said the Trump Gab account was just a mirror archive of public statements.

"We've always been transparent about this and would obviously let people know if the President starts using it. The only reason he's not using it right now to contact his base is because dopey advisers like Jared Kushner, who lost him the election, are blocking him from using it," Torba wrote, confirming the Trump profile is run by Gab.

Trump was permanently suspended by Twitter on January 8 "due to the risk of further incitement of violence" in the wake of the Capitol riot two days prior.

His Facebbook profile was locked for 24 hours on January 6. The next day, the blocks on his Facebook and Instagram were extended indefinitely, and remain in place.

Buzzfeed News reported on February 5 that members of Trump's campaign, including former manager Brad Parscale, approached another social media platform, Parler, with a similar offer: asking for a stake in the company in exchange for Trump joining.

That deal never went though and Parscale told Buzzfeed at the time the president "was never part of the discussions," and claimed they were "never that substantive."

While Trump remains banished from social media, speculation has surged over the past few days that he may soon return via his own platform. Senior adviser Jason Miller told Fox News last weekend that Trump could pull in "tens of millions of people."

"I think that we're going to see President Trump returning to social media in probably about two or three months here, with his own platform," Miller claimed to Fox News. "And this is something that I think will be the hottest ticket in social media."

A request for comment to Gab's listed press information on Wednesday resulted in a bounce-back email. Trump's representatives have been contacted for comment.

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Donald Trump's Team Sought Stake in Gab But Was Rejected, CEO Andrew Torba Claims - Newsweek

A former lawyer for Donald Trump who made several false claims of voter fraud in regard to the 2020 presidential election is now arguing that no reasonable person would have believed her conspiracy theories.

Lawyers for Sidney Powell make the argument in a court filing in hopes of getting a $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit filed against her by Dominion Voting Systems dismissed, CNN reports. Dominion filed the lawsuit in January.

Even [assuming] that each of the statements alleged in the Complaint could be proved true or false, no reasonable person would conclude that the statements were truly statements of fact, the filing says, as reported by Business Insider.

Powell claimed that Dominion voting machines were rigged to switch votes for Trump to Joe Biden, his Democratic challenger, during the election. There is no evidence any vote-switching occurred in what experts have called the most secure election in U.S. history.

According to CNN, Powell was sharing her opinions on the election and that people were free to come to their own conclusions. Powell made several public and TV appearances pushing the false claims. She lost every lawsuit she filed in making the false claims, Buzzfeed reports.

Indeed, Plaintiffs themselves characterize the statements at issue as wild accusations and outlandish claims, the filing says. They are repeatedly labeled inherently improbable and even impossible. Such characterizations of the allegedly defamatory statements further support Defendants position that reasonable people would not accept such statements as fact but view them only as claims that await testing by the courts through the adversary process.

According to Buzzfeed, Powells lawyers want Dominions lawsuit or the case moved to Texas. Theyre also arguing that Powells claims were hyperbole and should be protected by the First Amendment.

But Buzzfeed reports that government filings show many people arrested during the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol have cited Powells claims of a rigged voting system as a reason for believing the election was stolen from Trump.

Dominion has separate lawsuits against former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and Mike Lindell, the My Pillow CEO. Conservative commentators Lou Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo, and Jeanine Pirro have been sued by election-technology company Smartmatic.

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Donald Trumps former lawyer Sidney Powell argues no reasonable person would believe her conspiracy theories - masslive.com

As The Sun reports, the White House news conference was Biden's first official one as president and was limited to 25 reporters. He even had a cheat sheet, noted observers.

During the press conference, the presidentconfirmed he has every intention of running for re-election in 2024, and commented on the United States Covid-19 vaccination roll-out. "No other country in the world has even come close, not even close, to what we are doing," Biden claimed (via BBC). Elsewhere, the President also hadharsh words for his predecessor, criticizing Trump's handling of the expanding humanitarian crisis on the southern border.

Speaking toLaura Ingraham onFox News, Trump hit back at Biden's comments, claiming his own administration'sborder policies were superior because they encouraged fewer people to show up at the U.S.-Mexico border (via The Sun). "By the time we finished what we were doing [on the border], very few people were coming up because they knew they weren't going to get through." He added,"We stopped 'catch and release' which was a disaster."

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Donald Trump's Harsh Reaction To Joe Biden's Press Conference - The List

During an interview with former President Donald Trump, Fox News host Harris Faulkner falsely told Trump and viewers that Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas had resigned. Just seconds later, she apologized and said, "Forgive me, that has not happened."

HARRIS FAULKNER: Because it's just happened now and I want to double check this with our producers. The DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has resigned. Mr President--

DONALD TRUMP: Well, I'm not surprised. Good-- that's a big victory for our country.

HARRIS FAULKNER: Hold on. Let me-- let-- let me stop. Let me stop. Let me listen to my team one more time. Forgive me. Forgive me. That has not happened. But-- and I apologize--

DONALD TRUMP: OK.

HARRIS FAULKNER: Listening to the team and you.

DONALD TRUMP: Cross out that victory.

HARRIS FAULKNER: Right-- well-- and I want to tell everybody, you issued a statement last night and you called for that, though. And you're just talking about him just to clarify is somebody who you feel is not competent to handle what's going on. So let me clean up on aisle seven with my error. He has not resigned and let me move right to what you are calling for and others too. For him to move out of the way and possibly get somebody who can do the job. Your thoughts.

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Fox News host falsely announces Alejandro Mayorkas's resignation while interviewing Donald Trump - Yahoo! Voices

As youve probably heard by now, Donald Trump is in a lot of legal trouble, which is unfortunate for him given the fact that legitimate lawyers want nothing to do with him and if it werent for the fact that the Republican Party had already decided to let him get away with inciting a violent insurrection, he almost certainly would have been found guilty at his second impeachment trial. (In fact, one of the attorneys on his dream team suggested the Department of Justice should arrest him if they thought he committed a crime.) Currently, the ex-president is the defendant in approximately 29 lawsuits, according to The Washington Post, though likely more worrisome to him are the criminal investigations hes at the center of, particularly the one being led by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. In the last several months, the D.A. has brought on the attorney who put John Gotti and other white-collar criminals behind bars, has reportedly been working to flip the Trump Organizations longtime CFO, and, most crucially, obtained Trumps much sought-after tax returns, documents that the Queens-born real estate developer has gone to such extreme lengths to keep secret that some people have gotten the impression they contain extremely incriminating information. Now, Vances office has taken the next step in its criminal investigation: finding people who can explain to a jury why Trump is a possible crook.

Reuters reports that investigators are combing through millions of pages of newly acquired records with an eye toward identifying witnesses who can bring the documents to life for a jury, according to people familiar with the matter. Some of the individuals expected to testify are already well known and likely include the 45th presidents former fixer, Michael Cohen, who has met with prosectors eight times. (In February 2019, Cohen told lawmakers that Trump regularly inflated and deflated his assets when it served his purposes, whether it was to reduce his tax bill or obtain loans. Last year, he said in an interview that Trump should go to prison for 360 years.) In addition, theres Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organization employee who has described himself as Trumps eyes and ears at the company and would seemingly know if his boss had committed fraud, whether of the bank, insurance, or tax variety. But according to reporters Jason Szep and Peter Eisler, a growing universe of people, institutions, and agencies are being scrutinized by Vances team. Per Reuters:

Prosecutors are looking to gather information and testimony from bankers, bookkeepers, real estate consultants, and others close to the Trump Organization who could provide insights on its dealings, according to interviews and court filings. The process of identifying all witnesses and targets could take months. The next phase is identifying targets for subpoenas and testimony, said one person familiar with the case. Vances investigators need insiders who can provide the narrative behind any conflicting numbers on Trumps financial records and testify to Trumps knowledge and intent, said former prosecutors of white-collar fraud cases. Even in the most heavily document-dependent case, you need witnesses to tell the story, said Reed Brodsky, a longtime white-collar defense lawyer and former federal prosecutor.

Several potential key figures in Vances investigation are current or former employees of outside companiesfrom financial and real estate consultants to legal adviserswith inside knowledge of Trumps dealings, according to court filings and the two people familiar with the investigation. Some performed crucial roles for many years, such as Mazars accountant Donald Bender. His signature is on the tax returns of the Donald J. Trump Foundation, which was dissolved in 2018 after a probe by the New York attorney general found that the organization misused charitable funds. Trump was ordered to pay more than $2 million in damages.

In addition to real estate brokerage Cushman & Wakefield, which did years of work for the Trump Organization and appraised a property Trump used to obtain a tax easementa tool ProPublica described as a much-abused deduction exploited by wealthy investors that has cost the U.S. Treasury billions of dollarsVance has spoken to and requested records from Ladder Capital Corp. and Deutsche Bank AG, two of the former presidents biggest creditors. (Trump currently owes Deutsche Bank some $340 million and there is no love lost between him and the German lender, which could foreclose on the properties he used to personally guarantee his loans.) But according to Reuters, Vances investigation will likely rely heavily on Trumps closest associatespeople who can address the key question of what Trump was thinking when he made the financial claims now under scrutiny.

Only a core group of Trumps confidantes can address that state-of-mind question, which is critical to proving criminal intent. They include Weisselberg, 73, who began working for Trumps father, Fred, in 1973. Legal experts and a source familiar with the investigation say prosecutors apparent goal is to convince Weisselberg to cooperate. Also under scrutiny are Weisselbergs adult sons - one who has worked for the Trump Organization. The other son worked for Ladder Capital, though theres no evidence he was involved in Ladders loans to Trump.

Jennifer Weisselbergthe former wife of Allens older son, Barry Weisselbergtold Reuters that she has spoken with Vances office five times since November. The day after the first interview, she said, D.A. investigators visited her to retrieve tax and financial records for her and her former husband. She acknowledged that prosecutors have shown interest in an apartment in a Trump-owned building where she and her former husband lived rent-free for seven yearsan arrangement that could have legal implications if it represented compensation not properly reported in tax filings. Jennifer Weisselberg said she believed her father-in-law would never testify against Trump voluntarily. She envisions Allen Weisselberg flipping only if he or his sons are facing prosecution. But no one, she said, knows more about Trumps finances.

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Prosecutors Are Lining Up Witnesses to Explain Donald Trumps Many Alleged Crimes to a Jury - Vanity Fair