New documents reveal that Special Counsel Jack Smith obtained a search warrant for former President Donald Trump’s Twitter account at the beginning of the year amid his ongoing criminal investigations.
This information was confirmed in a public copy of an appeals document released Wednesday, ABC News reported. Some portions of the document were redacted and thus unavailable in the published copy.
A three-judge panel with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld a lower court’s decision to fine Twitter for contempt of court for failing to provide court-ordered documents by the mandated deadline.
The three circuit judges on the panel were Cornelia Pillard, Michelle Childs, and Florence Pan. Former President Barack Obama appointed Pillard, while President Joe Biden appointed both Childs and Pan.
The document states that Smith requested and obtained a search warrant for Trump’s Twitter account on January 17. A nondisclosure order was obtained on the same day to prevent Twitter from notifying Trump, or anyone else, about the warrant.
“Based on ex parte affidavits, the district court found probable cause to search the Twitter account for evidence of criminal offenses,” the document reads.
“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.’”
Four days after the compliance deadline on February 1, Twitter objected to providing the requested information, citing concerns that it would violate the First Amendment and the Stored Communications Act.
Twitter was then ordered to produce the documents requested in the warrant by February 7 at 5 p.m., and the document states that non-compliance would elicit “escalating daily fines” that were “designed to ensure Twitter complies with the search warrant.”
Not all of the requested documents were produced by Twitter before the deadline, resulting in fines totaling $350,000 being assessed.
Twitter filed a motion to appeal the decision, but the Court of Appeals upheld the lower court’s ruling, and the company was ordered to pay the fines.
Trump responded to the ruling on his social media site, Truth Social, saying that the investigation infringed on his civil rights.
“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!”
The former president has been indicted three times and faces a total of 75 charges.
One indictment stems from reports that Trump allegedly mishandled classified documents while leaving office in 2020, while another relates to allegations that he paid $130,000 in hush money to an adult film star during the 2016 presidential campaign, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
The most recent indictment on August 1 revolves around his alleged role in the events of January 6, 2021.
