A new court filing was unsealed Wednesday, revealing Special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into former President Donald Trump obtained a search warrant for Trump’s Twitter account, @realDonaldTrump.
This is breaking news that will be updated as more information becomes available. Keep reading below.
The unsealed court filing states, “The district court issued a search warrant in a criminal case, directing appellant Twitter, Inc. (‘Twitter’) to produce information to the government related to the Twitter account ‘@realDonaldTrump.'”
According to CNBC, Twitter originally delayed the delivery of the records; however, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled in agreement with a lower-court judge who fined Twitter $350,000 for refusing to meet the demands of the search warrant within the original three-day window.
Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office received the search warrant after applying for a warrant on Jan. 17 of this year. Smith’s office claimed that if Twitter was allowed to disclose the existence of the search warrant to the former president, the investigation could be put at risk by allowing Trump to remove any potential evidence on his Twitter account.
As a result, the special counsel was granted a non-disclosure order from a federal district court judge that “prohibited Twitter from disclosing the existence or contents of the search warrant to any person.”
The ruling stated that the Washington, D.C. district court “found probable cause to search the Twitter account for evidence of criminal offenses.” The ruling also explained, “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.”
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