Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., will resign from Congress to become chief executive officer of former President Donald Trump’s fledgling social media company next month, the group said Monday.
Nunes, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, will start as CEO of Trump Media & Technology Group, or TMTG, in January.
Nunes will begin his new career despite having no apparent prior experience working in the tech industry or as an executive.
The press release from TMTG came hours after documents revealed that the special purpose acquisition company — or SPAC — that plans to merge with Trump’s company had been contacted weeks earlier by the Securities and Exchange Commission. They and another regulator had asked the SPAC, Digital World Acquisition Corp. or DWAC, for information about the lead-up to the deal with TMTG being announced.
Shares of DWAC were up more than 7% in after-hours trading following the announcement that Nunes had been tapped to lead TMTG.
Nunes is just the second member of the 117th Congress to resign before the end of his term. If the GOP regains majority control of the House in the 2022 midterm elections, Nunes would have been in line to become chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee.
“I’m humbled and honored President Trump has asked me to lead the mission and the world class team that will deliver on this promise,” Nunes said in the press release.
A spokesman for the congressman did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
Nunes, 48, has represented California’s 22nd congressional district in the San Joaquin Valley since 2003. The San Joaquin Valley Sun, which first reported Nunes’ departure from Congress, noted that California’s redistricting maps showed Nunes may have faced a tougher reelection fight in 2022.
Nunes led the House Intelligence Committee from 2015 to 2019, when Republicans controlled the chamber. He garnered a reputation as a staunch defender of Trump’s during the special counsel probe of Russian election interference and possible coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign, and later during Trump’s first impeachment.
In his final month in office, and just two days before the deadly Jan. 6 invasion of the Capitol, Trump awarded Nunes the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Nunes was one of the 147 House Republicans who voted to challenge President Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory after the mob had been cleared out of the building.
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