Elon Musk's Twitter fined $350K for delay in providing documents related to Donald Trump. Details here

livemint.com:

Twitter Inc. or X was fined $3,50,000 for not immediately complying with a Justice Department search warrant for records pertaining to former US President Donald Trump's account. The social media giant was held in civil contempt by the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit.

According to the newly unsealed court filings, the district court had issued a search warrant in a criminal case and directed Twitter to produce information related the Twitter account of Donald Trump. The search warrant was issued along with a nondisclosure order that prevented the company from notifying anyone about its existence. “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 read. In its appeal to the district court, Twitter argued that the non-disclosure order violated First Amendment rights and that the court should have stayed enforcement of the warrant until the social media giant's objections were resolved. It further noted that district court abused its discretion by holding Twitter in contempt and imposing the sanction.

Twitter also said that if it turned over the records before the district court assessed the legality of the nondisclosure agreement, it would prevent the former president from "asserting executive privilege to shield communications made using his Twitter account," AP reported. According to the Washington Post, Judge Beryl A. Howell said in her ruling that there are reasonable grounds to believe that disclosing the warrant to Donald Trump would jeopardize the ongoing investigation by Special