Twitter Fined $350,000 For Refusing To Hand Over Trump’s Twitter Account To DOJ

Newly release court documents reveal Special Counsel Jack Smith obtained a search warrant for President Trump’s Twitter account.

Twitter which has now been rebranded as X, never handed over Trump’s Twitter account and was fined for over $350,000 for not being compliant to the warrant.

In response Trump took to Truth Social and wrote “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.”

He continued “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?”

BREAKING.🚨🚨

The Department of Justice clearly violated Donald Trump’s First Amendment rights and potentially executive privilege in its demands that Twitter turn over private messageshttps://t.co/3F0FwmrzhA

— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) August 9, 2023

Here’s what Business Insider reported:

A federal judge forced Twitter to pay $350,000 after it was slow to comply with special counsel Jack Smith’s search warrant for records related to former President Donald Trump.

Politico, which first broke the news, obtained newly unsealed documents that show how Smith’s team sent a search warrant for records related to @realDonaldTrump in January. The request was related to Smith’s investigation of Trump’s conduct following the 2020 election.

Smith’s grand jury later indicted Trump on four charges related to efforts to overturn the election and the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot. Last week, Trump pleaded not guilty to the charges.

According to the newly released document, Twitter sought to fight Smith’s move, especially the requirement that they could not inform Trump of the search warrant’s existence. A D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals panel later upheld a lower court’s decision that protected Smith’s request over Twitter’s First Amendment defense.

𝕏 spent $350,000 protecting President Trump’s civil rights as Special Counsel executed search warrant on his account https://t.co/dPWTwhPmQN

— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) August 9, 2023

Per Fox News:

Special counsel Jack Smith obtained a search warrant for former President Donald Trump’s Twitter account in January, newly released court documents reveal.

A federal judge held Twitter, now known as X, in contempt for delays in compliance with the warrant and fined the company $350,000. The judge’s decision was upheld by a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., last month in a sealed opinion. A redacted version of that opinion was released by the court Wednesday, bringing the previously unreported legal battle into the light.

“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,” Trump posted Wednesday on Truth Social after the court documents were unsealed. “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!”

According to court documents, Smith’s warrant was served with a nondisclosure order that prohibited Twitter from notifying anyone about the existence of the warrant. Twitter challenged the nondisclosure order, but was unsuccessful. The company did not hand over the requested materials while the litigation was ongoing.

Jack Smith is now harassing X (Formerly Twitter) for a delay in complying with a search warrant in January for records related to Donald Trump’s account and the company is now facing a $350,000 fine over it. pic.twitter.com/8GpxDBT2rV

— ALX 🇺🇸 (@alx) August 9, 2023

BREAKING: Biden DOJ fines Elon Musk $350,000 after he REFUSES to give them access to Trump’s Twitter accounthttps://t.co/YapVSdu81r

— Jack Poso 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) August 9, 2023