Elon Musk Withheld Donald Trump's Twitter Data to 'Cozy Up' to Embattled Ex-prez, Judge Suggests
Aug. 16 2023, Published 4:00 p.m. ET
Elon Musk was accused of withholding Donald Trump’s Twitter data from Special Counsel Jack Smith in an effort to “cozy up” to the embattled ex-president, RadarOnline.com has learned.
In a surprising development to come after Musk was fined $350,000 in February for failing to comply with a warrant demanding Trump’s Twitter information, newly unsealed court records showed that Musk actively fought to withhold information connected to Trump’s account from federal prosecutors.
Even more surprising is evidence that Musk resisted efforts to hand over Trump’s direct messages; location information; draft tweets; and a list of all the ex-president’s liked, favorited, retweeted, and deleted tweets.
That is the revelation shared by the newly unsealed court documents this week which showed that U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell suggested Musk failed to comply with the warrant because he wanted to “cozy up” to Trump.
“Is it because the CEO wants to cozy up with the former president, and that’s why you are here?” Judge Howell asked during a hearing on February 7. “It couldn’t be that Twitter is trying to make up for the fact that it kicked Donald Trump off Twitter for some period of time?”
“Is this to make Donald Trump feel like he is a particularly welcomed [and] renewed user of Twitter here?” the judge continued.
Meanwhile, the newly unsealed court documents showed that Smith and his office eventually obtained the information they were looking for in connection to Trump’s Twitter account.
As RadarOnline.com previously reported, it was revealed last week that Twitter – now known as X – was fined $350,000 in February for Musk’s refusal to comply with a federal warrant connected to Trump’s account.
The warrant was reportedly issued in January, and the social media platform failed to provide the requested Trump material until February 9.
Twitter initially delayed complying with the warrant because the company sought to block an order that prevented the platform from disclosing the warrant’s existence to Trump.
Musk reportedly cited the company’s First Amendment rights to communicate with its subscriber, Trump, about the warrant.
The three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ultimately ruled against the company on all counts and ordered Twitter to hand over the material.
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“Twitter has no defense for its failure to comply with the search warrant,” Judge Howell said during the February 7 hearing where she suggested Musk wanted to “cozy up” to Trump. “This delay is going to stop now.”
Trump's use of Twitter before and after the 2020 presidential election received renewed interest earlier this month when the already embattled president was indicted on four criminal charges connected to his alleged efforts to overturn the election.
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The former president infamously used the platform to promote his false claims of election fraud and to rally his supporters to Washington on January 6, 2021.
“Big protest in D.C. on January 6th,” Trump tweeted on December 19, 2020. “Be there, will be wild!”
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