Special counsel Jack Smith obtained a litany of former President Donald Trump's Twitter data, including direct messages, draft tweets, and location data, despite the social media company's pushback, according to unsealed court documents.
In February, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell fined Twitter — which is now known as X — $350,000, holding it in contempt of court for missing a court-ordered deadline to respond to prosecutors' search warrant.
"Is this to make Donald Trump feel like he is a particularly welcomed new renewed user of Twitter?" Howell asked at the February 7 hearing, dragging Twitter for taking "extraordinary" measures to notify Trump about the search warrant in advance, despite being told not to.
"Twitter has no interest other than litigation its constitutional rights," replied Twitter attorney George Varghese.
The judge went on to single out Elon Musk, who acquired the company in October of last year, saying, "Is it because the new CEO wants to cozy up with the former president?"
"Elon Musk hired expensive lawyers to fight a lawful search warrant to defend Donald Trump's interests," tweeted former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti. "Twitter receives court orders like this regularly, and doesn't spend that kind of money to fight them on behalf of customers. Why the special treatment for Trump?"
Elon Musk hired expensive lawyers to fight a lawful search warrant to defend Donald Trump’s interests.
— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) August 16, 2023
Twitter receives court orders like this regularly, and doesn’t spend that kind of money to fight them on behalf of customers.
Why the special treatment for Trump, @elonmusk? https://t.co/bNxYn6o69W
Politico reported that the new filings show that the search warrant ordered Twitter to provide the following data:
— Accounts associated with @realdonaldtrump that the former president might have used in the same device.
— Devices used to log into the @realdonaldtrump account
— IP addresses used to log into the account between October 2020 and January 2021.
— Privacy settings and history
— All tweets "created, drafted, favorited/liked, or retweeted" by @realdonaldtrump, including any subsequently deleted.
— All direct messages "sent from, received by, stored in draft form in, or otherwise associated with" @realdonaldtrump
— All records of searches from October 2020 to January 2021
— Location information for the user of @realdonaldtrump from October 2020 to January 2021
"I'm surprised that Trump had 'many' direct messages," Mariotti wrote in a Tuesday tweet. "Given that he doesn't use text and email, they could more directly reveal his intent than other evidence Jack Smith has."
I’m surprised that Trump had “many” direct messages.
— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) August 15, 2023
Given that he doesn’t use text and email, they could more directly reveal his intent than other evidence Jack Smith has. https://t.co/4IJCMpKWjg
As Politico notes, the legal kerfuffle between Smith's team and Twitter primarily stemmed from a "nondisclosure" order prosecutors issued to Twitter, ordering the social media company to keep Trump in the dark about the search warrant. Twitter responded by expressing concerns that Smith was mining for data that could be protected under presidential power, "a contention that drew incredulous responses from both prosecutors and the judge, who said Trump was unlikely to be doing government business with senior aides via Twitter DM."
"You don't even know the half about the very warrant you are coming in here to delay the execution of," Howell said, underscoring the fact that Twitter, at the time, was relatively unaware of what the encompassing evidence Smith's team had used to justify obtaining the warrant was.
"There actually are concrete cognizable reasons to think that if the former president had notice of these covert investigative steps, there would be actual harm and concern for the investigation, for the witnesses going forward," special counsel team member Gregory Bernstein said, according to the transcript.
"First, they don't know anything. I mean, they know some stuff. They know what they have read in the newspapers," Bernstein said. "But they're making these confident factual assertions without knowing the actual facts of the investigation."
Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance said the transcript suggests the special counsel's office "had a close informant" who gave them the probable cause they needed and "who they were strenuously protecting from Twitter's efforts to disclose to Trump."
This thread is fascinating-confirming prosecutors got high value from DMs, location info, etc. It suggests the govt had a close informant who gave them the PC they needed to get into the account & who they were strenuously protecting from Twitter's efforts to disclose to Trump. https://t.co/AK2TKA5qe6
— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) August 16, 2023
New York University Law Prof. Ryan Goodman told CNN that the "timescale for the search warrant means this is not just around January 6th.
"It's much broader than that. It's soaking up a lot of information that the government must have had probable cause," he said. "We don't yet know, are the DMs only incoming?" he added. "He's famously known for not really emailing. It could be that he's receiving private DMs coming in and maybe not sending them out. That could be part of what's still very valuable information."
