Twitter took so long to hand over Donald Trump’s tweets and DMs in the federal case brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith that the judge finally asked, “Is it because [Elon Musk] wants to cozy up with the former president?”
The “ridiculous” back-and-forth with Twitter, as Judge Beryl Howell termed it, surfaced in newly unsealed transcripts as reported by Politico.
The process began with a search warrant issued on Jan. 17, which gave Twitter 10 days to turn over all relevant data for Trump between October 2020 and January 2021.
Twitter, which was represented by George Varghese, Ari Holtzblatt and Ben Powell of Los Angeles-based law firm WilmerHale, repeatedly stalled.
Finally losing patience in a Feb. 7 hearing, Howell referenced Musk: “Is it because the new CEO wants to cozy up with the former president?” The Tesla founder bought Twitter on Oct. 27, 2022, and changed the platform’s name to X in July.
Among the issues was Twitter’s allegation that they needed to notify Trump about the search warrant as, the company argued, some data might be covered by executive privilege.
Howell replied that Trump was unlikely to be doing government business with senior aides in his Twitter DMs.
Gregory Bernstein, a member of the special counsel team, argued, “There actually are concrete cognizable reasons to think that if the former president had notice of these covert investigative steps, there would be actual harm and concern for the investigation, for the witnesses going forward.”
Witness tampering is among the charges filed in the case, a tactic that Trump has allegedly used frequently in the past, such as in the Jan. 6 hearings.
