A federal appeals court on Tuesday denied X’s challenge to Special Counsel Jack Smith’s secret search warrant for Trump’s X account.
As previously reported, Special Counsel Jack Smith admitted he included inaccurate information when he asked Judge Beryl Howell, an Obama appointee, for a secret search warrant for Trump’s X/Twitter account @RealDonaldTrump.
X was fined $350,000 because it delayed producing the subpoenaed records.
The search warrant was so secret that Trump didn’t even know Jack Smith issued a subpoena for the records.
Biden’s corrupt Justice Department obtained a nondisclosure order that prohibited X from informing Trump about Jack Smith’s subpoena.
Over the course of the months-long legal battle, X argued that the nondisclosure order violated the First Amendment and Stored Communications Act.
The Justice Department argued Trump would put the so-called ‘ongoing investigation’ in jeopardy.
In August the DC Circuit Court Appeals said the court found that there were “reasonable grounds to believe” that Trump would ‘jeopardize the ongoing investigation’ if he knew about the search warrant.
“The district court, according to the DC Circuit’s opinion, “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, [or] notify confederates.”” CNN reported in August.
Jack Smith admitted to Judge Howell he included inaccurate information when he suggested Trump would become a flight risk if he learned about the secret gag order.
Judge Beryl Howell
A month later in September, X asked for a hearing before the DC Circuit Court of Appeals’ entire court of 11 judges (en banc).
The Court’s 11 judges denied X’s challenge on Tuesday, but the 4 conservative judges offered up a scathing condemnation of Jack Smith, Judge Pan and Judge Beryl Howell for their decision to circumvent executive privilege.
The 4 conservative judges from the DC Circuit Court of Appeals scorched Jack Smith, Judge Beryl Howell (District Judge) and Judge Florence Pan (Biden-appointed federal judge on appeals court) for bypassing the assertion of executive privilege when they obtained a secret search warrant for Trump’s X account.
“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.” – Judge Naomi Rao wrote in a statement joined by the 3 other conservative judges on Tuesday.
Holy sh*t: 4 judges on DC appellate court just delivered a scorching smack down of Special Counsel Jack Smith, Judge Beryl Howell, and Judge Florence Pan for search of Trump’s Twitter file.
“The Special Counsel’s approach obscured and bypassed any assertion of executive… pic.twitter.com/jwIIIxeZPB
— Julie Kelly (@julie_kelly2) January 16, 2024
Jack Smith and the Biden DOJ also demanded information on all Twitter-X users who retweeted President Trump, liked President Trump’s tweets, or mentioned President Trump’s account in their tweets.
