According to a heavily redacted search warrant released on Nov. 27, Smith requested information from social media platform X about a wide array of interaction with Trump’s account from between October 2020 and January 2021, while the platform was still known as Twitter. DOJ investigators sought the information for all tweets that were created, drafted, liked, or re-tweeted by Trump’s account, including deleted tweets. The special counsel also wanted information on all Twitter users that Trump’s account “followed, unfollowed, muted, unmuted, blocked, or unblocked, and all users who have followed, unfollowed, muted, unmuted, blocked, or unlocked” Trump’s account. Additionally, Smith’s warrant wanted X to turn over information on all Twitter users who favorited or retweeted posts from Trump’s account, as well as all tweets that include Trump’s handle. The breadth of Smith’s warrant request, if it were fulfilled, threatened to fold into the special counsel investigation journalists, activists, social media influencers, and nearly anyone on the platform who had any sentiment — positive or negative — toward the former president. Notably, eight of the warrant’s 14-pages are entirely blacked out from top to bottom, so it’s unclear how much other detailed information DOJ officials wanted in their targeting of individuals who may have backed Trump. According to the document, the warrant was issued on January 17, 2023 and DOJ officials ordered company officials at X to provide the requested materials on or before January 31, 2023. The company initially balked at complying with the request, which resulted in a $350,000 fine. X argued that the order, which prohibited the company from notifying anyone targeted about the existence of the search warrant or what DOJ officials wanted, was a violation of the First Amendment, and that a lower court judge should have waited to enforce it until that objection was handled, the New York Post reported. The warrant was approved by Judge Beryl A. Howell, an Obama appointee who has served as Chief Judge of the U.S. District Cort for the District of Columbia since 2016.Disclosure of a sweeping document from Special Counsel Jack Smith reveals that besides former President Trump, a number of other individuals may have been swept into the investigation.
