Pass the Popcorn

Jack Smith got a search warrant to search Trump's twitter account.  

Not a surprise.  I am sure that the direct messages are fascinating.

What is also interesting is that Ecch, formerly known as Twitter, was held in contempt of court and fined 350 Grand for dragging their feet on turning over the data.

Any bets on whether Elon told people to slow walk the request?

Any bets on whether Elon still has not paid the fine?

The US special counsel who is investigating Donald Trump obtained a search warrant for the former president’s Twitter account, and the social media platform delayed complying, a court filing on Wednesday showed.

The delay in compliance prompted a federal judge to hold Twitter in contempt and fine it $350,000, the filing showed.

The filing says the team of US special counsel Jack Smith obtained a search warrant in January directing Twitter, which recently rebranded to X, [Ecch] to produce “data and records” related to Trump’s Twitter account as well as a non-disclosure agreement prohibiting Twitter from disclosing the search warrant.

………

Twitter objected to the non-disclosure agreement, saying four days after the compliance deadline that it would not produce any of the account information, according to the ruling. The judges wrote that Twitter “did not question the validity of the search warrant” but argued that the non-disclosure agreement was a violation of the first amendment and wanted the court to assess the legality of the agreement before it handed any information over.

Definitely coming directly from Elon.  Non-disclosure warrants from law enforcement are routine at social media sites.

The warrant ordered Twitter to provide the records by 27 January. A judge found Twitter to be in contempt after a court hearing on 7 February, but gave the company an opportunity to hand over the documents by 5pm that evening. Twitter, however, only turned over some records that day. It didn’t fully comply with the order until 9 February, the ruling says. The delay in compliance prompted the court to Twitter in contempt, and on Wednesday, the federal court in Washington upheld that decision.

………

Trump had been a prolific user of Twitter, both before and during his presidency. Amassing more than 88 million followers, he used the platform to attack opponents, promote racist ideology, encourage violence against journalists, and even threaten nuclear war.

Trump was banned from the platform following the 6 January 2021 insurrection at the Capitol for inciting violence.

………

Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Elon's companies never reply to press inquiries, unless you count the 💩.

He is so very clever, isn't he?