A recently unsealed court document revealed that Twitter relinquished key messages from then-President Donald Trump's account.
During special counsel Jack Smith's investigation into Trump over his alleged election subversion, Smith issued a warrant to Twitter, now known as X, to turn over all the direct messages to and from the @realDonaldTrump account from October 2020 to January 2021. At first, X, which by that point had already been acquired by Elon Musk, dragged its feet to comply, according to a brief that was unsealed on Friday but was initially filed in May.
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X argued that Trump, as he was still president during the time the messages were sent, could still use his executive privilege. As the direct messages could include communication between Trump and his Cabinet, they could be protected. So, even though the warrant required the messages be delivered by Jan. 27, the social media platform informed the Department of Justice it would not comply and let the deadline pass.
A similar conflict took place under President Richard Nixon when the General Services Administration attempted to take custody of the tape recordings made in the Oval Office during the infamous Watergate investigation. At that time as well, the Nixon administration argued that having to relinquish the tapes would “impermissibly interfere with candid communication of views by Presidential advisers.” However, it was eventually coerced to give them up because the GSA argued that it was "a very limited intrusion" and would not require all of the tapes.
While X attempted to use Nixon's argument to fight the warrant, Smith and his team argued that it would be "a minuscule proportion of the total production" as only 32 messages were received and sent in those four months. Eventually, X complied with the warrant on Feb. 9, but a month later was issued a $350,000 sanction and held in contempt of court for not fulfilling the warrant in a timely manner.
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As the case is sealed, it remains to be seen if X has won its appeal against the sanction, as it has argued that it complied with the warrant. Its appeal was filed on March 7, four days after the sanction came down.
The former president entered a not guilty plea last month in the case before U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan. Trump is charged with four felony counts relating to an alleged scheme to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power after losing the 2020 election to President Joe Biden. Chutkan decided on a trial date of March 4, 2024.