Elon Musk’s ‘X’ fined $350,000
The ruling revealed that Special Counsel John “Jack” Smith’s office obtained the warrant as part of its investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Prosecutors had asked a judge to bar Twitter from revealing the warrant’s existence, arguing that alerting the former president “would seriously jeopardize the ongoing investigation” by giving him an opportunity to destroy evidence or change his conduct.
The fight had unfolded largely in secret court proceedings until Wednesday, when the DC Circuit ordered a redacted version of its July 18 opinion unsealed.
The ruling shows that a three-judge panel unanimously upheld the civil contempt sanction as well as a lower court judge’s ruling keeping the nondisclosure order in place.
Twitter had argued that the nondisclosure order violated the First Amendment’s free speech protections, and that it shouldn’t have to comply with the warrant until that issue was fully litigated. A district court judge ruled against the company and ordered Twitter to comply by Feb. 7. Twitter missed that deadline and didn’t produce the records until the evening of Feb. 9, triggering the monetary sanctions.
Bloomberg/Time/Hauwa Abu
