Recent court documents now public indicate that special counsel Jack Smith obtained significant details from the former president’s Twitter interactions, encompassing direct messages, drafts, and search histories. This access was sanctioned in January via a previously undisclosed search warrant.
The specified data spanned from October 2020 to January 2021. This encompasses location information, interactions with other users, and all Twitter activities like tweets, retweets, drafts, and deletions.
Notably, the judge permitted Smith’s request to withhold the search warrant details from the former president, fearing potential interference. During the proceedings, the judge expressed disapproval of Twitter’s lawyers’ desire to inform Trump before surrendering the data, raising questions about the platform’s motives given its recent leadership change involving Elon Musk.
News of this search warrant initially surfaced last week. Reacting strongly, the former president, through his Truth Social platform, lambasted Smith for unauthorized access to his Twitter data and for concealing this action.
Twitter attorneys also revealed that Trump’s account sent “some volume” of direct messages that prosecutors were working to obtain.
Among the data the search warrant commanded Twitter to produce:
— Accounts associated with @realdonaldtrump that the former president might have used in the same device.
— Devices used to log into the @realdonaldtrump account
— IP addresses used to log into the account between October 2020 and January 2021.
— Privacy settings and history
— All tweets “created, drafted, favorited/liked, or retweeted” by @realdonaldtrump, including any subsequently deleted.
— All direct messages “sent from, received by, stored in draft form in, or otherwise associated with” @realdonaldtrump