Special Counsel Jack Smith's team obtained a search warrant earlier this year for records linked to former President Donald Trump's Twitter account, according to court documents unveiled on Wednesday.
The move comes as part of the ongoing legal battle surrounding the warrant that has remained under wraps for months. The federal appeals court in Washington, overseeing the case, has now released the details, shedding light on the contentious issue.
The court documents highlight that the search warrant was issued on January 17, directing the social media giant Twitter, renamed as X, to produce crucial information from Donald Trump's account, which was actively used in the lead-up to the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.
The documents show that the court found "probable cause to search the account for evidence of criminal offenses." The government also imposed a nondisclosure agreement on Twitter, restricting the disclosure of the warrant's existence.
Twitter's resistance to comply with the warrant led to a federal judge holding the company in contempt and imposing a $350,000 fine. The documents reveal that Twitter ultimately complied with the warrant but failed to produce the requested information until after a court-ordered deadline, resulting in a financial penalty.
The court's ruling dismissed Twitter's claim that it should not have been held in contempt or sanctioned, saying that disclosing the warrant's existence could have risked the ongoing investigation. The ruling emphasises that the purpose of the nondisclosure order was to prevent tipping off former President Donald Trump about the warrant's existence, which could have potentially hindered the investigation.
The exact nature of the information sought from Trump's Twitter account remains undisclosed, but it's believed that it could include data about the timing, location, and engagement of his tweets, as well as information about accounts that reposted his content. The indictment against Trump, unsealed recently, included references to his tweets and charged him with conspiring to subvert the will of voters and hold onto power after losing the 2020 election.
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