The Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from Elon Musk’s X Corp on Monday, regarding a case involving special counsel Jack Smith and former President Donald Trump's Twitter messages. The appeal claimed that Smith violated the First Amendment by obtaining a search warrant for Trump's messages and then prohibiting X Corp from disclosing it. The court's decision to not comment on the matter and the absence of any noted dissents were notable aspects of the case.
Smith's investigation into Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election led to the search for the former president's communications on Twitter, now known as X. Trump was indicted last year, and his case is currently pending in US District Court in Washington. Twitter initially refused to comply with the search warrant and was fined $350,000 for its non-compliance. The company's objection was not to the warrant itself but to the gag order imposed on it.
In its appeal to the Supreme Court, X argued that the nondisclosure order was an unprecedented circumvention of executive privilege. The company raised concerns about the potential broader implications if the government attempted to access information protected by other privileges, such as doctor-patient confidentiality.
The government countered these arguments by asserting that Twitter did not have the authority to claim privilege over the records in question. The special counsel's office contended that the Fourth Amendment allowed the government to obtain a warrant to search property belonging to a third party if there was probable cause to believe that evidence of a crime would be found.
Elon Musk, who has endorsed Trump's reelection bid, found himself embroiled in this legal battle. Both a trial court and a three-judge appeals panel in Washington, DC, sided with the special counsel's office, emphasizing that disclosing the warrant could have jeopardized the grand jury investigation. The investigation ultimately yielded several dozen direct messages sent by Trump and other data associated with the DonaldTrump account.
