Investigators obtained secret warrant for Trump’s Twitter account
By Alanna Durkin Richer
Washington: Special counsel Jack Smith’s team obtained a search warrant in January for records related to former US president Donald Trump’s Twitter account, and the move was kept secret to stop Trump jeopardising the investigation.
According to court documents released on Wednesday (Thursday AEST), a judge also levied a $US350,000 fine ($535,000) on the company for missing the deadline to comply.
Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram all banned or suspended then US president Donald Trump after the violent storming of the Capitol by a mob of his supporters.Credit: AP
The new details were included in a ruling from the federal appeals court in Washington over a legal battle surrounding the warrant that has played out under seal for months. The court rejected Twitter’s claim that it should not have been held in contempt or sanctioned.
Smith’s team repeatedly mentioned Trump’s tweets in an indictment unsealed last week that charges the former president with conspiring to subvert the will of voters and cling to power after he lost the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden.
It’s unclear what information Smith may have sought from Trump’s account. Possibilities include data about when and where the posts were written, their engagement and the identities of other accounts that reposted Trump’s content.
While Trump’s tweets are publicly viewable, the company also holds non-public information on accounts like direct messages, drafts of tweets, location data and the type of device used to send tweets.
The search warrant underscores the breadth of the investigation and the lengths Smith has gone to to obtain evidence to build his case.
Prosecutors obtained the search warrant on January 17 directing Twitter to produce information on Trump’s account after a court “found probable cause to search the account for evidence of criminal offences,” according to the ruling. The government also obtained a non-disclosure agreement that had prohibited Twitter from disclosing the search warrant, the filing says.
The court found that disclosing the warrant could risk Trump jeopardising the ongoing investigation by giving him “an opportunity to destroy evidence, change patterns of behaviour” or notify his allies, the filing says.
Trump, a Republican, has pleaded not guilty to charges including conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstruction of Congress’ certification of Biden’s win. In a post on his social media site Truth Social, he said 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”.
Twitter objected to the non-disclosure agreement, saying four days after the compliance deadline that it would not produce any of the account information, according to the ruling. The judges wrote that Twitter “did not question the validity of the search warrant” but argued that the non-disclosure agreement violated its First Amendment right to communicate with Trump.
Twitter said if it had to turn over the records before the judge assessed the legality of the agreement, it would prevent Trump “from asserting executive privilege to shield communications made using his Twitter account,” the document says.
The warrant ordered Twitter to provide the records by January 27. A judge found Twitter to be in contempt after a court hearing on February 7, but gave the company an opportunity to hand over the documents by 5pm that evening. Twitter, however, only turned over some records that day. It didn’t fully comply with the order until February 9, the ruling says.
X, as Twitter is called now, sent an automated reply to a request for comment, saying it would respond soon.
Trump supporters rally before the riot at the US Capitol in Washington on January 6, 2021.Credit: AP
Trump used his Twitter account in the weeks leading up to his supporters’ attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, to spread false statements about the election that prosecutors allege were designed to sow mistrust in the democratic process.
The indictment details how Trump over Twitter encouraged his followers to come to Washington on January 6, pressured his vice president Mike Pence to reject the certification and falsely suggested that the mob at the Capitol – which beat police officers and smashed windows – was peaceful.
Trump has yet to post to the site since being allowed back on.
The election conspiracy case is the second case Smith has brought against Trump. He is also facing dozens of felony counts stemming from classified documents found at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
Trump’s legal team in court papers have urged the judge to allow for the reestablishment of a secure facility at Trump’s home where the former president can discuss classified evidence with his attorneys while they prepare for trial in that case.
Prosecutors say Trump should only be to do so at sensitive compartmented information facilities — or SCIFs. But Trump’s lawyers say “immense practical and logistical hurdles and costs” would make travelling to government-approved locations difficult. He wants to recreate the same secure facility at Mar-a-Lago in which he was allowed to discuss classified materials as president.
Prosecutors will often ask judges that targets of subpoenas issued in criminal probes not be notified in order to protect their investigations, a practice the appeals court cited in Wednesday’s ruling.
AP, Reuters
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