Twitter Served With Warrant for Trump’s Account, Fined $350K and Held in Contempt
Newly released court documents from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit show that special counsel Jack Smith served Twitter with a search warrant for President Donald Trump’s account.
The Court held Twitter in contempt and fined the company $350,000 since it did not comply with the requests until three days after the deadline.
Trump hasn’t used his account since the previous ownership banned him from the platform.
Smith demanded Twitter to hand over all information regarding the Twitter account @realDonaldTrump. The search warrant included a “nondisclosure order that prohibited Twitter from notifying anyone about the existence or contents of the warrant.”
The district court found probable cause for the search warrant and nondisclosure agreement because if someone told Trump, he could delete information, destroy evidence, or even change his behavior patterns.
In this appeal, Twitter argues that the nondisclosure order violated the First Amendment and the Stored Communications Act; that the district court should have stayed its enforcement of the search warrant until after Twitter’s objections to the nondisclosure order were resolved; and that the district court abused its discretion by holding Twitter in contempt and imposing the sanction. We affirm the district court in all respects.
The Court found the government’s argument compelling because its “interest is heightened where an investigation has national security implications, for no governmental interest is more compelling than the security of the Nation.'”
Yes, the government is so trustworthy. The Court agreed with the district court (I took out footnotes and citations):
Thus, the government’s interest was particularly strong here because its ongoing investigation aimed to “[f]erret[] out activity intended to alter the outcome of a valid national election for the leadership of the Executive Branch of the federal government … and [to assess] whether that activity crossed lines into criminal culpability.” Moreover, secrecy is paramount to ensuring that ongoing investigations can proceed without interference from targets or interested parties. Breaching the investigation’s confidentiality could open the door to evidence-tampering, witness intimidation, or other obstructive acts. ([P]rotecting the secrecy of an investigation” is a compelling government interest.).
The Court also said the nondisclosure order was “narrowly tailored to advance the State’s compelling interest through the least restrictive means.” Therefore, “it withstood strict scrutiny.” It was only limited to 180 days.
Trump responded:
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!
Trump was indicted on four counts over the Capitol Hill riots on January 6th: conspiracy to defraud the U.S., conspiracy to corruptly obstruct and impede the J6 congressional proceeding (2 counts), and conspiracy against the right to vote and to have one’s vote counted.
As Professor Jacobson has repeated numerous times, the indictment comes up short on any crime.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY