Newly released court records show that X (previously Twitter) turned over at least 32 direct messages from former President Donald Trump’s account to Special Counsel Jack Smith according to CNN.
The discoveries were published last month, but the latest complaint demonstrates the scope of the material acquired and how prosecutors specifically asserted that Donald Trump posed a risk of tampering with evidence while attempting to secure data from his X account.
Though it is unclear how the chats influenced the inquiry, the documents show that Smith and his team were also able to obtain private records related to the account.
Prosecutors educate X
Notably, X initially declined to provide up the material because the Justice Department requested that the request not be disclosed to Donald Trump. The Department of Justice said that if Donald Trump learned about the warrant, it would “result in the destruction or tampering with evidence, intimidation of potential witnesses, or serious jeopardy to this investigation.”
However, because of the delay, Smith only had access to 32 DMs, and the prosecutors informed the court of this.
“Indeed, the materials Twitter produced to the Government included only 32 direct-message items, constituting a minuscule proportion of the total production,” the prosecutors wrote in the newly unsealed brief.
Elon Musk’s company fought back, claiming that some of Trump’s direct messages might be protected by executive privilege if they were discussing state business with other government officials.
“As such, Twitter sought to delay compliance with the entirety of the Warrant based on the speculative possibility that a tiny fraction of the total production could, implausibly, contain instances when the President sought to use the direct-messaging function to carry out sensitive and confidential deliberations with trusted advisors within the Executive Branch,” the prosecutors added.
X eventually supplied the record, but not before being fined $350,000 for failing to turn over the data on time. During one of the court hearings, DOJ attorney Thomas Windom protested about X’s casual approach toward data handover.
“I had felt like I had been getting nickeled-and-dimed for the prior 20 minutes of conversation. We need the material. We need it now. And, we needed it 13 days ago,” he said.