Jack Smith received a warrant to search Donald Trump’s Twitter account: The special counsel looked into Trump’s account on the social media network, which banished Trump shortly after January 6
Should Donald Trump Be Worried?
Donald Trump was kicked off the social media platform then known as Twitter in January of 2021, shortly after the January 6 insurrection.
Trump got his account back, in November of 2022, after Elon Musk bought the company, although he has not resumed tweeting, opting instead to use his own platform, Truth Social.
There was surprising news on Wednesday about Trump’s Twitter account: Politico reported that Special Counsel Jack Smith obtained a search warrant for Trump’s account back in January, one that was resisted by Twitter but ultimately granted.
The outlet also reported a series of events that had previously been under seal: Twitter refused to comply with the warrant, leading to a contempt of court fine of $350,000, a fine that was subsequently upheld by an appeals court. That court released that opinion Wednesday, which also showed that Twitter ultimately complied with the warrant.
“The company did not fully produce the requested information until three days after a court-ordered deadline,” the opinion said, as cited by Politico. “The district court thus held Twitter in contempt and imposed a $350,000 sanction for its delay.”
The story also stated that Trump was not told about the warrant.
“Based on ex parte affidavits, the district court found probable cause to search the Twitter account for evidence of criminal offenses. 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 appeals court ruling said.
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In May, Politico reported that an attorney known to have worked with the special counsel’s office had gone up against another lawyer known for representing tech companies, in a mysterious “sealed appeals court argument.” The May report did not name the company or the nature of the dispute, which was still under seal at the time.
The Wednesday story also said that the Justice Department, in attempting to serve the warrant, had a hard time getting ahold of Twitter, which had undergone massive inner turmoil after Musk acquired it a few months earlier and seen numerous top executives depart. The first contact was made through the company’s “website for legal requests,” but that page was found to be out of order. It ultimately took weeks for anyone at Twitter to get back to them.
Twitter, which has since changed its name to X, had argued at the time that the order was a violation of the First Amendment.
Politico said that it’s not clear what Smith wanted with the Twitter account. The warrant would likely give prosecutors access to Trump’s drafts folder as well as any direct messages he may have sent, and information about which devices (and individuals) had access to the account. The already-published tweets are publicly available, and while they disappeared from Twitter during the period when Trump was banned, they were already restored by the time of the warrant earlier this year.
There was no indication in the previous indictments of Trump by Smith’s office that any evidence had come directly from the backend of his Twitter account.
Trump did not react positively to the news.
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“Just found out that Crooked Joe Biden’s DOJ secretly attacked my Twitter account, making it a point not to let me know about this major ‘hit’ on my civil rights,” Trump said on Truth Social Wednesday, using the usual MAGA-world playbook of treating Smith’s office as an extension of President Biden. “My Political Opponent is going CRAZY trying to infringe on my Campaign for President. Nothing like this has ever happened before. Does the First Amendment still exist? Did Deranged Jack Smith tell the Unselects to DESTROY & DELETE all evidence? These are DARK DAYS IN AMERICA!”
Author Expertise and Experience
Stephen Silver is a Senior Editor for 19FortyFive. He is an award-winning journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.
