WASHINGTON − Special Counsel Jack Smith obtained a search warrant for former President Donald Trump’s long-dormant Twitter account in January, according to a court document unsealed Wednesday.
Twitter turned over Trump’s Twitter information in February, three days late, and a federal judge fined the company $350,000 for missing the deadline.
The revelation of the Trump search warrant, which was accompanied by an order that Twitter not disclose the warrant, is outlined in a decision last month from a federal Court of Appeals that upheld the judge’s decision to hold Twitter in contempt.
The newly unsealed ruling, which includes some redactions, deals more with Twitter’s response to the search warrant than Smith’s case against Trump for conspiring to overturn the 2020 election.
The Justice Department obtained the search warrant on Jan. 17, 2023 as part of its investigation into Trump. A district court found “probable cause to search the Twitter account for evidence of criminal offenses,” according to the appeals court opinion.
“Moreover, the district court found that there were ‘reasonable grounds to believe’ that disclosing the warrant to former President Trump ‘would seriously jeopardize the ongoing investigation’ by giving him ‘an opportunity to destroy evidence, change patterns of behavior, (or) notify confederates.”
The warrant directed Twitter to produce data and records related to the @realDonaldTrump Twitter account, according to the document. The government also obtained a nondisclosure order, which prohibited Twitter from disclosing the existence or contents of the search warrant to any person.
On his Truth Social account, Trump protested that the Justice Department “secretly attacked my Twitter account, making it a point not to let me know about this major ‘hit’ on my civil rights.” Grand jury investigations are secret by law so that suspects do not know what prosecutors are looking at.
Smith sought information about Trump’s Twitter activity before and during the insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021. Twitter, then led by CEO Jack Dorsey, suspended Trump’s account shortly after that attack. Trump’s Twitter account was later reinstated after business mogul Elon Musk purchased the company.
The appeals court ruling in the X case also provided some background on the investigation into Trump: “Since November 18, 2022, Special Counsel Jack Smith has overseen an ongoing criminal investigation into potential interference with the peaceful transfer of power following the 2020 presidential election.”
Trump also used Twitter during his months-long effort to overturn his losses to in several states, actions that are at the heart of Smith’s indictment.
Trump last week was indicted by a federal grand jury on four felony counts for conspiring to steal the 2020 election from President Joe Biden, including actions that led to the Capitol insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021. In June, he was indicted on federal grand jury on charges related to the hundreds of classified documents seized from his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago.
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