Supreme Court Declines To Weigh In On X Corp.’s Challenge To Special Counsel Jack Smith’s Access To Donald Trump’s Twitter DMs
The Supreme Court won’t hear X Corp.’s challenge to Special Counsel Jack Smith’s access to former President Donald Trump’s Twitter DMs.
In his investigation into Trump’s efforts to remain in power after the 2020 election, Smith obtained a search warrant for the messages, but Twitter was also prevented from disclosing the warrant to the former president.
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X Corp., the successor to Twitter, has challenged the gag order, arguing that it violated the First Amendment.
The high court justices declined to take the case, but made no comment.
The Elon Musk-owned company initially balked at complying with Smith’s investigation, and was fined $350,000 by a district court judge for its delay. It turned over the data, but challenged the terms of the non-disclosure order.
An appeals court, though, sided with the district judge.
“Twitter had reason to believe both that the nondisclosure order was invalid because the investigation was highly public, and that the warrant demanded potentially privileged presidential records,” X Corp.’s attorneys wrote in their petition for cert to the Supreme Court.
Smith’s team argued that the non-disclosure order was needed to safeguard the integrity of the investigation.
Last year, a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit sided with Smith, writing, “The government proffered two compelling interests that supported nondisclosure of the search warrant: preserving the integrity and maintaining the secrecy of its ongoing criminal investigation of the events surrounding January 6, 2021.”
Trump has plead not guilty to election conspiracy charges brought by Smith, claims all related to the former president’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Musk endorsed Trump in July, and spoke at a rally for him on Saturday.
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