Elon Musk fined in the United States for not handing over Donald Trump’s documents to cooperate fully with an investigation. Despite ultimate cooperation, Elon Musk’s X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, was fined $350,000 for failing to quickly comply with a previously unknown Justice Department search demand for documents relating to former President Donald Trump’s account.
According to court filings published Wednesday, special counsel Jack Smith’s team secured a search warrant in January for materials relating to former President Donald Trump’s Twitter account, and a judge fined the corporation $350,000 for failing to comply by the deadline. You can take a look at the 34-page decision here.
“Based on ex parte affidavits, the district court found probable cause to search the Twitter account for evidence of criminal offenses. Moreover, the district court found that there were ‘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 opinion stated. Elon Musk fined $350,000, which doesn’t seem so expensive for a multi-billionaire.
Elon Musk fined for not handing in the documents
Elon Musk fined by the United States for not handing in the documents. The new information was revealed in a judgment from the federal appeals court in Washington over a legal struggle over the warrant that has been ongoing for months under secrecy. Twitter’s allegation that it should not have been held in contempt or sanctioned was rejected by the court.
Smith’s team referred to Trump’s tweets many times in an indictment released last week, which charges the former president with attempting to undermine voter will and cling to power after losing the 2020 race to Democrat Joe Biden.
Trump, a Republican, has pleaded not guilty to charges including conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstructing the certification of Biden’s victory by Congress. On Wednesday, he claimed on his Truth Social platform that the Justice Department “secretly attacked” his Twitter account, and he described the inquiry as an attempt to “infringe” on his campaign to recapture the White House in 2024.
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The warrant was served with a “nondisclosure order” that prevented Twitter, now known as X, from informing Trump of the existence of the warrant. X claimed that the order violated the First Amendment and that district court Judge Beryl Howell should have halted the search warrant’s execution until the objection was resolved.
The court “found probable cause to search the Twitter account for evidence of criminal offenses,” according to the judgment of Biden appointment Judge Florence Pan.
Trump used his account to spread misinformation
In the weeks leading up to his supporters’ attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Trump used his Twitter account to distribute false assertions about the election that prosecutors said were intended to create distrust in the democratic process.
The indictment describes how Trump pushed his fans on Twitter to travel to Washington on Jan. 6, pressed his Vice President Mike Pence to reject the certification, and falsely claimed that the crowd at the Capitol, which battered police officers and broke glass, was peaceful.
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The warrant arrived at Twitter in the midst of fast changes implemented by Musk, who acquired the company last year. Since taking charge, he’s altered the powerful site, letting off a large portion of its workforce, including those tasked with tracking out disinformation and hate speech.
Featured image credit: Bastian Riccardi/Unsplash
