According to the latest reports, Elon Musk is fined $350,000 for delaying a search warrant on Donald Trump's Twitter, now X, account.
In mid-January, special counsel Jack Smith secured the warrant and delivered it on Twitter, now known as "X," along with a "nondisclosure order." The court ordered that the social media network not notify Trump that his account would be inspected.
However, after being issued with the warrant, the corporation waited several days to react. On February 2, Twitter filed a move to vacate the nondisclosure order, claiming it violated the First Amendment and refusing to comply. The corporation requested that U.S. District Court Judge Beryl Howell, who was handling the case at the time, stay the search warrant's execution until the situation was settled.
Instead, Howell declared Twitter in contempt and punished it with $50,000 per day, with the amount rising for each day of noncompliance. Twitter did not comply with the warrant until February 9, incurring a total fine of $350,000.
Twitter filed an appeal, but an appeals court confirmed Howell's judgment in July, according to the records disclosed Wednesday. You can see the decision here.
Elon Musk is fined for not meeting the deadline
Elon Musk is fined by the United States for failing to turn in the documents on time. The new information was released in a decision from a federal appeals court in Washington on a legal battle over the warrant that has been underway in secret for months. The court rejected Twitter's claim that it should not have been held in contempt or sanctioned.
Smith's team cited to Trump's comments many times in the indictment, which charges the former president with seeking to subvert voter will and cling to power after losing the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden.
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It's unclear what Smith was looking for on Trump's Twitter account. The former president preferred Twitter over all other forms of communication, and he utilized it to promote his election fraud theories and to encourage his fans to visit Washington on January 6, 2021. Many of those jailed in connection with the January 6 insurgency thought Trump's remarks were a clear call to weapons.
Featured image credit: Patrick Pleul/Pool Photo via AP
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