WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court Elon Musk’s social media company X on Monday declined to rule on whether prosecutors could obtain information from former President Donald Trump’s Twitter account without notice.
The lawsuit comes as part of special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into Trump’s alleged interference in the 2020 election, which the Supreme Court ended earlier this year by ruling that presidents have broad immunity from prosecution for official acts taken in office. The court ruled in favor of the prosecutors.
Smith has already obtained the information in question in X’s application, as Twitter is already known to have since Musk’s takeover of the social media company.
But X’s lawyers said the Supreme Court should step in so prosecutors can’t do similar things in the future without being notified that their information will be turned over to the government. Trump himself is not involved in this.
Among other things, Trump was unable to make any arguments about how the material in question should be protected because of his role as president, the attorneys said in court filings. They argue that the non-disclosure order violated X’s free speech rights.
The case comes from January of last year, when the government sought a warrant under a law called the Stored Communications Act as part of its investigation of Smith. A federal judge upheld the warrant, as well as a non-disclosure order preventing X from telling Trump or anyone else about it. Smith’s team argued that if the warrant were released, there was the potential for evidence to be destroyed or altered.
X initially resisted and was subject to a $350,000 civil penalty before later agreeing. The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia District upheld the decision of the district court. During the trial, Smith agreed that Trump could be notified of the warrant.