The District of Columbia Court of Appeals released a document revealing that Twitter, now called X, was fined $350,000 for a delay in turning over information from Donald Trump's account on the platform earlier this year.
The delay by Elon Musk’s company resulted in a declaration of contempt issued by the court, as a search warrant had been issued earlier this year by public prosecutor Jack Smith requesting access to the former president's account information.
The district court thus held Twitter in contempt and imposed a $350,000 sanction for its delay.
The request was made during the investigation launched by the Department of Justice (DOJ) concerning Trump's behavior after the 2020 election and his alleged links to the events that occurred on Jan. 6, 2020, on Capitol Hill.
The document confirms that Twitter did comply with the search warrant and provided all the requested information. However, this occurred three days after the deadline established by the court:
Twitter initially delayed production of the materials required by the search warrant. Although Twitter ultimately complied with the warrant, the company did not fully produce the requested information until three days after a court-ordered deadline
Court alleges that Twitter refused to comply with the order and that there was a flight risk
The document justifies the fine by arguing that Twitter refused to deliver the requested information within the established term.
But Twitter had previously defended itself by claiming that a nondisclosure mandate, which was delivered along with the order, "violated the First Amendment and the Stored Communications Act." This give Twitter the right to communicate the fact to former President Trump, and the nondisclosure mandate prohibited them from informing anyone about its existence.
The contempt filing alleged that if Twitter informed Trump of the existence of the order "on reasonable grounds," it could have jeopardized the investigation:
Twitter argued that the nondisclosure order violated the First Amendment and the Communications Act and the Stored Communications Act. ... the district court found that therewere reasonable grounds to believe that disclosing the warrant to former President Trump would seriously jeopardize the ongoing investigation by giving him an opportunity to destroy evidence, change patterns of behavior...
The court document also asserts that, if Trump knew of the facts, the former president would have been a flight risk: "The District Court also found reason to believe that the former president would 'flee from prosecution.'" In addition, it is indicated that federal agents faced difficulties in notifying Twitter of the court order, as they attempted to do so for several days through its legal request website, which was "inoperative".
Trump's response
Trump, who was not aware of the existence of the mandate, spoke out as soon as the news came to light. The former president declared that it was a "great blow" to his civil rights:
