Former President Donald Trump’s tweets – at least when he was still on Twitter (now technically known as “X”) – might have been infamous for their incendiary and controversial nature, but if reports are to be believed, they don’t hold a candle to what the former president’s direct messages, or DMs, contain.
Politico reporter Kyle Cheney revealed that based on recently unsealed court findings, Special Counsel Jack Smith, who leads the team of federal prosecutors working on most of Trump’s indictments, was able to acquire an “stunning amount” of data from the former chief executive’s Twitter account.
Donald Trump Was a Serial “tweeter”
Donald Trump was known to tweet heavily when he was on the platform – especially during his tenure as president – up until he was permanently banned for violating the social media site’s terms following the aftermath of the 2020 presidential elections. When Elon Musk took over the company, Trump’s account was reinstated, but the former commander-in-chief has not tweeted again, preferring to voice is opinions and thoughts on his own Twitter-like social media platform, Truth Social.
The DM’s are especially important to the prosecution’s case given, as Cheney reports, “Twitter acknowledges that — given his aversion to texts and emails — Trump’s DMs may be ‘the only such electronic communications written by the former President himself.’”
Legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance agreed, tweeting, “This thread is fascinating—confirming prosecutors got high value from DMs, location info, etc,” referring to Cheney’s twitter thread detailing his findings.
Furthermore, Cheney’s Twitter thread and Politico article say that Twitter “mounted an unprecedented effort to impede the search warrant by notifying Trump — prompting an incredulous Judge Beryl Howell to wonder if Elon Musk was trying to ‘cozy up’ to him.”
Punished to the tune of $350,000
The government recently levied a $350,000 fine against the social media company for failing to meet the deadline prosecutors gave for the platform to hand over Trump’s data.
“Although Twitter ultimately complied with the warrant, the company did not fully produce the requested information until three days after a court-ordered deadline,” recently unsealed court documents stated. Documents also show that the social media company was given multiple deadlines to submit the data – but Twitter either submitted “incomplete” information or completely ignored the ultimatums set by the court
The former president was incensed, of course, upon learning the news. Posting on Truth Social he said, “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. 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!”
Matters related to the warrant to seize Trump’s Twitter was only now unsealed as federal prosecutors feared that Trump or his associates could delete content if they had knowledge of the warrant, which would constitute destruction of evidence.
Tim Ramos has written for various publications, corporations, and organizations – covering everything from finance, politics, travel, entertainment, and sports – in Asia and the U.S. for more than 10 years.
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