LAS VEGAS – Conservative social network developer Parler alleges it was damaged and improperly executed by a prominent Republican Party supporter, two men who took part at the company and one -a political statement famous for its support for former President Donald Trump.
John Matze said in a lawsuit that he was fired for trying to eradicate terrorism on the site. He said wealthy philanthropist Rebekah Mercer, website fans Jeffrey Wernick and Mark Meckler, and podcaster and television analyst Dan Bongino complained he stole his 40% company stake, leaving him with $ 3.
Mercer, through the Heritage Foundation and family foundation tax lawyer, Wernick and Meckler at Parler, and Bongino did not immediately respond at Tuesday’s newsletter to phone and email messages about the lawsuit filed Monday. in Nevada state court.
He positions Matze as a scapegoat in a riot that arose after Parler went to a site for far-south sights long before and after Jan.’s siege. 6 at the US Capitol.
The site, located in Henderson’s suburbs outside Las Vegas, became popular after the violence, when Trump’s social media was blocked as a stimulus by mainstream Facebook FB platforms ,
and TWTR Twitter,
Parler was taken from the internet Jan. 11 after Apple AAPL,
a hanging purchase of Amazon’s AMZN smartphone and app,
AWS stopped hosting on the internet cloud. The site returned in mid-February, without Matze.
Wernick was not an officer or owner of Parler but saw himself as his chief operating officer, the lawsuit said. He said he listed Bongino to “use his media presence… to inspire Parler.” Meckler became the chief executive of the company.
After Matze proposed assessment roles and banned well-known groups such as non-Nazis and QAnon’s right-wing conspiracy theory, his lawsuit said he was charged with misconduct and burned on 29 January.
“Simply put, Parler was removed to advance the personal political interests and personal interests of defenders rather than being a free-speech platform as originally created,” the lawsuit said.
The court filing valued Parler at more than $ 1 billion and confirmed that Matze is entitled to several million dollars in damages and penalties.
Matze’s lawyers, James Pisanelli and Todd Bice, said in a brief statement Tuesday that the lawsuit aims to correct Matze’s rights, correct wrongdoings and deal with breach of contract and goodwill.
The document identifies Mercer, the daughter of Trump’s main donor Robert Mercer and a donor for the Breitbart News hosting site, as the founding investor in Parler. They said Matze is the founding developer. They said the name of the site comes from the French word for “speak. ”
He cited a post given to Mercer saying that Parler was “a neutral platform for free speech” and “a beacon for all who value freedom, free speech and personal privacy.” . ”
“Instead of defending Parler,” the lawsuit alleges, “Mercer tried to co-opt him as a symbol or ‘spearhead’ for her conservation brand.”