Former President Donald Trump suffered a significant legal setback today as a federal appeals court ruled in a split 2-1 decision that special counsel Jack Smith has the authority to access records from Trump’s Twitter account. This ruling comes as part of Smith’s wide-ranging investigation into election subversion and the events surrounding the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals judges, as reported by Raw Story, rejected Trump’s attempt to appeal a lower court’s approval of Smith’s search warrant for the social media platform, formally known as Twitter. The court’s concise order on Tuesday stated, “It is ORDERED that the petition be denied.”
The decision marks a significant defeat for Trump in his efforts to impede the special counsel’s probe. Smith, tasked with investigating Trump’s involvement in overturning the 2020 election results and the Capitol insurrection, sees Trump’s suspended Twitter account as a potential trove of evidence. The account was permanently suspended last year due to violations.
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Conservative judges on the appeals court dissented, arguing that Trump could not invoke presidential immunity or executive privilege over the records before they were handed over. The dissenting opinion stated, “The Special Counsel’s approach obscured and bypassed any assertion of executive privilege and dodged the careful balance Congress struck in the Presidential Records Act.”
However, the majority on the three-judge panel remained unpersuaded, allowing Smith to thoroughly examine Trump’s tweets, direct messages, and other account data as part of building the case.
Legal experts suggest that this ruling weakens Trump’s ability to impede the special counsel’s work through executive privilege claims and undermines assertions by Trump allies that he is immune from prosecution due to his status as a former president.
Smith, appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland in November, will inherit a substantial amount of evidence already gathered by prosecutors probing whether Trump unlawfully sought to retain power. Critics accuse Trump of orchestrating a multi-faceted plot to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory.
With the court granting Smith broad access to Trump’s social media records, the former president now faces increasing legal jeopardy as the special counsel’s investigation intensifies. The ruling indicates that judges are unlikely to sympathize with Trump’s obstruction tactics or claims of absolute immunity.
