Elon Musk's X Fined $350,000 For Delaying Tactics On Handing Over Trump's Account Data

Elon Musk-owned X (formerly Twitter) has been forced to pay a fine of $350,000 by a federal court for fighting against a Justice Department warrant for handing over former President Donald Trump's account data.

What Happened: Newly unsealed documents have revealed that X's legal team fought a Justice Department warrant that sought data on Trump's X account in relation to the department's investigation into the January 6 riot.

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The US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit held X (Twitter Inc. at the time) in civil contempt for resisting an order to comply with the Justice Department's warrant. While X was not opposed to handing over Trump's account data, the Musk-owned company did not want to comply with the non-disclosure clause, saying it violated First Amendment rights.

Special Counsel Jack Smith who obtained the search warrant underlined that this would alert Trump and possibly result in him or his allies jeopardizing the investigation by destroying evidence.

"Although Twitter ultimately complied with the warrant, the company did not fully produce the requested information until three days after a court-ordered deadline. The district court thus held Twitter in contempt and imposed a $350,000 sanction for its delay," the court filing said.

The court initially agreed to waive off the fine on February 7 if X handed over the data by 5 p.m., but the company missed this deadline again. This forced the court to levy the $350,000 fine.

‘Major Hit On My Civil Rights', Says Trump: Trump took to his social media platform, Truth Social, to say that this was a "secret attack" on his X account.

"Just found out that Crooked Joe Biden’s DOJ secretly attacked my Twitter account, making it a point not to let me know about this major ‘hit’ on my civil rights," he said.

It's still unclear what information the Justice Department sought from X. While Musk reinstated Trump's account in November 2022, he has chosen not to post from it yet, instead sticking to his social media platform.

Image Credits – Shutterstock

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