There are intricacies in the investigation of the special prosecutor, Jack Smith, for which Donald Trump was indicted last week for conspiring to annul the result of the 2020 elections. One of those aspects emerged when it was learned that the prosecutor obtained the order in January to require Twitter, today X, to provide access to all of the former president's messages, according to documents unveiled this Wednesday.
The order, signed at the beginning of the year by Washington judge Beryl Howell after Elon Musk took over the reins of the platform, is one of the evidences of how those responsible for the public prosecutor's office investigated Trump's communications and shows the depth of the investigation. The former president's micromessaging account became inactive after the incidents of January 6, 2020, once he even congratulated the assailants of Congress.
As a consequence of this order, the company had to pay a penalty of $320,000 for its delay in compliance. They gave them three days and did not respond. Twitter filed an appeal, and the court upheld Judge Howell's decision.
From the documents it is deduced that the company did not oppose the delivery of the tweets, basically a public document. What they fought is what they understood as a gag order, since they prevented them from communicating that request to Trump and considered that this order violated the freedom of expression that is contemplated in the first amendment of the Constitution.
The judge upheld the decision not to reveal the information to the former president as requested by the prosecutors who wanted to investigate that account. So the investigators obtained permission for this investigation to remain secret, which is not unusual in legal proceedings. They feared that if Trump learned of that move, it would "seriously jeopardize the ongoing investigation," because it gave him an opportunity to "destroy evidence, change patterns of conduct, or inform co-conspirators," the documentation says.
As soon as this information was released this Wednesday, Trump replied from his online social network with the role of martyr for the homeland that he has adopted. “Just learned that corrupt Joe Biden's Justice Department secretly attacked my Twitter account, leaving me unaware of this major blow to my civil rights,” he wrote. “My political opponent is going crazy trying to infringe on my campaign for president,” he added. Furthermore, he suggested that Smith, rather than collect evidence as he has done in this matter, wants to "destroy and erase" it.
What is clear, once this petition has been discovered more than seven months later, is the silent work and far from public controversy in the investigation of the most serious case that has been against democracy in the United States, in the classification of most historians and jurists.
Trump's Twitter account, with more than 80 million followers, became a platform from which the then president ruled by insults and disqualifications. Until now it has not been revealed what the prosecutors were looking for, but everything indicates that they were interested in some invisible aspect.
This Friday a hearing is called in the Washington court that is handling the case of the 2020 conspiracy. The judge will listen to both parties, after the Smith requested that measures be imposed on Trump so that he does not reveal things about the investigation. The petition came after the former president posted this warning online: "If you come after me, I'll go after you." It was understood as a threat and that is why protection was requested. Trump's lawyers oppose that order and Trump has already said that no one shuts him up.
