Court rejects Twitter’s appeal of ruling that let special counsel access Trump’s DMs

(WASHINGTON) — The full D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday rejected an effort by Twitter to appeal a ruling that allowed special counsel Jack Smith to access records from former President Donald Trump’s Twitter account as part of his federal election interference probe.

As ABC News previously reported, the social media company secretly tried to fight an effort by Smith to obtain metadata and a handful of direct messages allegedly sent by Trump from his Twitter account before the account was suspended shortly after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

On Tuesday, the full court did not issue an opinion accompanying its rejection of the appeal, though a minority of judges consisting of the court’s conservative jurists issued an accompanying statement that argued that the ruling ignored potentially relevant executive privilege issues.

The ruling from the court means that none of the Twitter records and data that Smith has obtained will be clawed back — though it’s unclear whether the social media company will seek to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court.

A district judge previously raised concerns about whether Twitter was taking action at the behest of its CEO Elon Musk, who has made statements favorable to Trump.