Special counsel got a search warrant for Twitter to turn over info on Trump’s account, documents say

Special counsel Jack Smith’s team obtained a search warrant in January for records related to former President Donald Trump’s Twitter account, and a judge levied a $350,000 fine on the company for delay in complying, according to court documents released Wednesday.

The details were included in a decision from the federal appeals court in Washington stemming from a legal battle over the warrant that has played out under seal and behind closed doors for months. The appeals court rejected Twitter’s claim that it should not have been held in contempt or sanctioned.

X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, sent an automated reply to a request for comment, saying it would respond soon.

Prosecutors got the search warrant on Jan. 17 directing Twitter to produce information on Trump’s account after a court “found probable cause to search the Twitter account for evidence of criminal offenses,” according to the ruling. The government also obtained a nondisclosure agreement that had prohibited Twitter from disclosing the search warrant, the filing says.

The court found that disclosing the warrant could risk that Trump would “would seriously jeopardize the ongoing investigation” by giving him “an opportunity to destroy evidence, change patterns of behavior” or notify his allies, the filing says.

Twitter objected to the nondisclosure 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 nondisclosure agreement violated the First Amendment and wanted the court to assess the legality of the agreement before it handed any information over.

The warrant ordered Twitter to provide the records by Jan. 27. A judge found Twitter to be in contempt after a court hearing on Feb. 7, but gave the company an opportunity to hand over the documents by 5 p.m. that evening. Twitter, however, only turned over some records that day. It didn’t fully comply with the order until Feb. 9, the ruling says.

Smith has charged Trump, in an indictment unsealed last week, with conspiring to subvert the will of voters and cling to power after he lost the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden. 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.

Trump says he is innocent and has portrayed the investigation as politically motivated. His legal team has indicated it will argue that Trump was relying on the advice of lawyers in 2020 and had the right to challenge an election he believed was rigged. Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

It’s unclear what information Smith may have sought from the platform. Possibilities include data about when and where the posts were written, their engagement and the identities of other accounts that reposted Trump’s content.

Trump used his Twitter account in the weeks leading up to his supporters’ attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to spread false statements about the election that prosecutors allege were designed to sow mistrust in the democratic process. On Jan. 6, Trump sent tweets urging his Vice President Mike Pence to not certify the election.

The warrant arrived at Twitter amid rapid changes instituted by Musk, who purchased the platform last year. Since taking over he’s transformed the influential site, laying off much of its staff, including workers dedicated to ferreting out misinformation and hate speech.

He also eliminated Twitter’s policy on COVID-19 misinformation and welcomed back a long list of users who had been previously banned, including neo-Nazis, COVID deniers and Trump, who was kicked off after the attack on the Capitol for glorifying violence.

Trump has yet to post to the site since being allowed back on. As Trump once did, Musk has used the platform as a partisan megaphone.

Last year Musk urged his many online followers to vote Republican in the midterm elections. This year he hosted Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis for a glitch-filled campaign kickoff.

A spokesman for the special counsel’s office declined to comment on the warrant or what it sought.

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Richer reported from Boston. Associated Press reporters Michelle Price, David Klepper and Lindsay Whitehurst contributed to this report.