US Special Counsel and Twitter Engage in Confidential Legal Battle Over Trump Account Data Seizure

US Special Counsel Obtains Search Warrant to Demand Twitter
Twitter Defies Order to Keep Trump Private
Court Imposes Over $400 Million Delay Fine on Twitter

The U.S. special counsel has obtained a search warrant for former President Donald Trump's Twitter account data, and it has recently come to light that Twitter engaged in a private legal battle over this issue, sparking controversy.

With the upcoming presidential election next year and the Twitter account data containing information related to the Capitol riot expected to significantly impact former President Trump's political activities, a fierce legal battle over the data secured by the special counsel is anticipated.

On the 9th (local time), CNN reported that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued a ruling requiring Twitter to pay a fine of $350,000 (approximately 460 million KRW) for delaying the disclosure of information pursuant to the search warrant for former President Trump's account data. The ruling was made in secret on the 18th of last month, and the full content was released on this day.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump [Photo by AP Yonhap News]

The background of this ruling dates back to January. According to the ruling and foreign media reports, in January, Special Counsel Jack Smith requested a search warrant from the court to seize data and records related to former President Trump's Twitter account (@realDonaldTrump). The special counsel promptly obtained the warrant from the court and simultaneously secured a non-disclosure order preventing the warrant itself from being disclosed to former President Trump's side. The New York Times (NYT) described this as "the first public instance of the special counsel directly searching the communication means of former President Trump in connection with the January 6 incident."

Although the warrant was obtained, the special counsel did not immediately secure the data. The special counsel presented the warrant to Twitter and attempted to obtain data related to former President Trump's account. However, Twitter argued that while it could comply with the warrant itself, it was difficult to comply with the non-disclosure order and filed a lawsuit. Twitter intended to deliver the data but also to inform former President Trump's side of the warrant's contents. Twitter claimed that the order violated the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of expression.

Regarding the lawsuit filed by Twitter, on February 7, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell in Washington D.C. ruled in favor of the special counsel. Judge Howell noted that since the search warrant included investigation details, if the non-disclosure order was not upheld, former President Trump might interfere with the investigation. Consequently, Twitter ultimately handed over data related to former President Trump's account to the special counsel on February 9. The special counsel secured evidence for the investigation.

However, the legal battle between the special counsel and Twitter was not over. The U.S. Department of Justice argued that sanctions were necessary because Twitter missed the deadline to comply with the warrant by three days after the ruling. In March, Judge Howell also accepted the Department of Justice's claim, viewing Twitter's late data provision despite the warrant as contempt of court, and ordered Twitter to pay a fine of $350,000.

Twitter appealed this ruling by Judge Howell in May, seeking to challenge it. Two months later, on July 18, the Court of Appeals unanimously upheld Judge Howell's ruling imposing the fine on Twitter and dismissed the appeal. As a result of this ruling, Twitter must pay the $350,000 fine.

Based on the data obtained from Twitter through this series of processes, the special counsel indicted former President Trump on the 1st on charges including conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election results, conspiracy to obstruct the election, interference with voting rights, and fraud. The indictment referenced 18 of former President Trump's tweets, which appear to have been used as evidence obtained through the legal battle with Twitter.

Since the indictment involves charges related to attempting to overturn the election results and fraud against the American people, which are fundamental to democracy, it is expected that former President Trump will face significantly heightened political risks due to this indictment.

Immediately after the court ruling was made public, former President Trump criticized on his social media platform Truth Social, which he created, stating, "I just found out that the dishonest Joe Biden Department of Justice secretly attacked my Twitter account," adding, "This is something that did not inform me about a factor that severely damages my civil rights."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.