Former President Donald Trump attacked special counsel Jack Smith on Sunday night amid reports the Justice Department obtained a search warrant for his Twitter account earlier this year.
“How dare lowlife prosecutor, Deranged Jack Smith, break into my former Twitter account without informing me and, indeed, trying to completely hide this atrocity from me,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social account. “What could he possibly find out that is not already known.”
Court documents unsealed Wednesday first revealed that Smith obtained the warrant in January as part of his investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Trump was indicted in that probe earlier this month and faces four federal charges related to a multi-pronged conspiracy to stay in power, according to prosecutors’ allegations.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges, as well as those in another indictment filed by Smith’s team linked to his handling of classified documents after he left the White House.
Twitter, now known as X, initially resisted the search warrant, arguing part of it that included a nondisclosure order violated the First Amendment. The Justice Department fined the company $350,000 after it delayed complying, and Twitter later turned over the details of Trump’s handle.
It’s unclear what prosecutors were looking for in Trump’s Twitter account, which has been dormant since he was booted from the platform in 2021. News of the warrant came after a federal appeals court decision rejected Twitter’s assertions it shouldn’t have been held in contempt of court and been fined.
The former president went on to compare the warrant to the search of his Mar-a-Lago club and residence last year, a key moment in Smith’s investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents.