Special Counsel Jack Smith’s battle with X, formerly Twitter, over a warrant for former President Donald Trump’s account reached the Supreme Court Tuesday.
U.S. District Court Judge for the District of Columbia Beryl Howell granted Smith’s request for a warrant in January 2023, along with a nondisclosure order prohibiting X from notifying anyone of the warrant’s existence. This allowed Smith access to data like draft tweets and direct messages as part of his investigation into Trump’s actions around Jan. 6.
The company argues that the precedent set by lower court rulings on the issue has “far-reaching” implications, allowing the government to “invade other privileges,” such as attorney-client or journalist-source, by “seeking communications from, and gagging, third parties.”
X’s delay in compliance while it fought the order on First Amendment grounds earned it a $350,000 sanction, which a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld.