A federal judge claimed that former President Donald Trump might flee if he learned of a secret warrant, according to newly unsealed documents.
U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell said that “immediate notification to the customer or subscriber of the TARGET ACCOUNT(S) would seriously jeopardize the ongoing investigation, as such a disclosure would give that person an opportunity to destroy evidence, change patterns of behavior, notify confederates, and flee from prosecution,” according to a filing from Twitter that was among those unsealed by the judge on Aug. 15.
Judge Howell, appointed under President Barack Obama, entered the non-disclosure order at the request of the special counsel Jack Smith’s team.
Lawyers for President Trump did not respond to requests for comment.
The order prevented Twitter, now known as X, from alerting President Trump about the warrant, which forced Twitter to provide extensive data from President Trump’s account to Mr. Smith’s team.
Mr. Smith’s team wrote in a filing, also unsealed this week, that the court should approve the non-disclosure order because the former president might try to flee if the order was not entered.
Keeping the warrant secret “furthers several additional governmental interests, including (1) ‘prevent[ing] the escape’ of individuals who may be indicted,” Mr. Smith’s team claimed.
Twitter objected to the claims from Mr. Smith and Judge Howell, arguing that “there is no reason to believe that notification of this latest search warrant in this investigation would suddenly cause former President Trump or any potential confederates to destroy evidence, intimidate witnesses, or to flee prosecution.”
“The former President has announced that he is running for re-election in 2024, which renders it highly implausible that he will attempt to flee the country, and even more unlikely that such flight would be precipitated by this specific warrant,” Twitter lawyers said in the Feb. 2 filing.
In a hearing on Feb. 7, Judge Howell said that she understood Twitter wanted to have the non-disclosure order modified to take out the “potential risk of flight by the president.”
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