US Supreme Court will not hear appeal from Musk’s X over warrant in Trump case
7 October 2024, 17:34
The company says a nondisclosure order that blocked it from telling Mr Trump about the warrant violated its First Amendment rights.
The US Supreme Court said on Monday it will not hear an appeal from the social media platform X over a search warrant prosecutors obtained in the election-interference case against former president Donald Trump.
The justices did not explain their reasoning and there were no noted dissents.
The company, known as Twitter before it was purchased by billionaire Elon Musk, says a nondisclosure order that blocked it from telling Mr Trump about the warrant obtained by special counsel Jack Smith’s team violated its First Amendment rights.
The company also argues Mr Trump should have had a chance to exert executive privilege. If not reined in, the government could use similar tactics to invade other privileged communications, their lawyers argued.
Two nonpartisan electronic privacy groups also encouraged the high court to take the case on First Amendment grounds.
Prosecutors, though, say the company never showed Mr Trump had used the account for official purposes so executive privilege would not be an issue. A lower court also found that telling Mr Trump could have jeopardised the ongoing investigation.
Mr Trump used his Twitter account in the weeks leading up to his supporters’ attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, to spread false statements about the election that prosecutors allege were designed to sow mistrust in the democratic process.
The indictment details how Mr Trump used his Twitter account to encourage his followers to come to Washington on January 6, pressured his vice president Mike Pence to reject the certification of the election and falsely suggested that the mob at the Capitol — which beat police officers and smashed windows — was peaceful.
That case is now inching forward after the Supreme Court’s ruling in July giving Mr Trump broad immunity from criminal prosecution as a former president.
The warrant arrived at Twitter amid rapid changes instituted by Mr Musk, who purchased the platform in 2022 and has since sacked much of its staff, including workers dedicated to ferreting out misinformation and hate speech.
He also welcomed back a long list of users who had been previously banned, including Mr Trump, and endorsed him in the 2024 presidential race.
