Billionaire Elon Musk’s X, formerly known as Twitter, has been slapped with $350K penalty for delay in handing over the social media records of former US President Donald Trump in the January 6 case. X has been found gulity of missing the deadline in a probe by the US Department of Justice. Latest reports say that the social media giant didn’t comply with the secret search warrant for Trump’s account. According to the order, the probe agencies served the warrant to X earlier this year. The probe regarding the storming of US Capitol on January 6, 2021 sought the social media company to provide details of Trump’s Twitter account – @realdonaldtrump. The warrant had sought data and other records of this account.
The Department of Justice’s search warrant asked X to produce data and materials pertaining to Trump’s @realdonaldtrump Twitter account, which he routinely used as a loudhailer to connect directly to his millions of followers throughout his administration.
However, X did not comply with the request from the team led by special counsel Jack Smith until three days beyond the court-ordered deadline, and only delivered an incomplete collection of records on that day.
A delay transpired during X’s unsuccessful attempt to challenge a non-disclosure order preventing public discussion of a warrant due to legal concerns. The corporation argued that this order infringed on its First Amendment right to free speech.
As per the legal document, a lower court determined that notifying Trump about the investigation could jeopardize the ongoing inquiry and potentially lead to evidence destruction or tampering.
The lower court also suggested that the ex-president might evade prosecution, but this assertion was later acknowledged as an error by the government.
After X paid $350,000, the lower court permitted restricted notification of Trump about the warrant, as information regarding his investigations had become public.
Meanwhile, entrepreneur Musk, who acquired Twitter for $44 billion, downsized its workforce, drawing concerns from regulators about reduced compliance staff.
Trump’s Twitter was reinstated by Musk post the January 6 rioting, while Trump’s own social platform, Truth Social, remained inactive.
In another case, the ex-president faced arrest on four charges, including conspiracy and obstruction.
Trump, eyeing the 2024 presidency, pleaded not guilty and criticized the legal actions against him. The unsealed court order led him to accuse Biden’s DOJ of undermining his campaign.
Both the Department of Justice and X chose not to comment on the matter.