Former President Donald Trump and the founder of the SPAC that is merging with his new media company may have discussed the deal in March 2021, The New York Times reported.

Such a discussion could potentially have broken laws governing when SPACs can enter conversations with potential partners, the publication added…

The timing of the first conversations between Trump and Patrick Orlando, the SPAC’s chief executive and chairman, are of interest. This is because of securities laws that prohibit conversations between SPACs and merger partners before public listings, the Times reported on Friday.

Digital World was incorporated in December 2020, and said in its May IPO prospectus that it hadn’t been in “substantive” discussions with any merger targets.