Jack Smith obtained search warrant for Donald Trump’s Twitter account in January

Aug. 9 (UPI) -- Special Counsel Jack Smith obtained a search warrant for Donald Trump's Twitter account in January, new court documents reveal.

After news about the documents broke, Trump called the search a "major 'hit' on my civil rights."

The documents show that Twitter, which had just been purchased by controversial billionaire Elon Musk in late 2022, had initially resisted complying with the warrant.

A federal judge held Twitter, now called X, in contempt and levied a $350,000 fine, according to an order from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upholding the lower judge's rulings last month and unsealed Wednesday.

Twitter was directed to produce information relating to the account @realDonaldTrump. The warrant came with a nondisclosure order forbidding the company from notifying anyone about the existence of the warrant.

Details about the target of the search was not revealed. In a public copy of the sealed indictment, the warrant was said only to direct Twitter "to produce information to the government related to the Twitter account" belonging to the former president.

"Twitter initially delayed production of the materials required by the search warrant while it unsuccessfully litigated objections to the nondisclosure order," the court documents read.

"Although Twitter ultimately complied with the warrant, the company did not fully produce the requested information until three days after a court-ordered deadline."

Twitter appealed after the decision from the district court judge, which held the company in contempt and imposed the hefty sanction for the delay.

In its appeal, Twitter took primary issue with the nondisclosure order over the warrant, itself, stating that the order violated the First Amendment and the Stored Communications Act.

Twitter also said the district court should have stayed the enforcement of the warrant until after the dispute over the nondisclosure order was resolved.

The appeals court upheld every point of the district court's decision, including that Smith had probable cause to search for evidence of criminal offenses.

The upper court noted that the Stored Communications Act establishes procedures for law enforcement to obtain evidence from electronic service providers such as Twitter and specifically allows for the government to seek nondisclosure orders.

The law outlines five specific incidents in which a nondisclosure order can be sought, including the possibility of flight from persecution, destruction of evidence and intimidation of witnesses.

This warrant was sought as part of the indictment Smith reached with a grand jury criminally charging the former president for his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, which led to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Trump has also been indicted in another federal case stemming from Smith's probe of the former president's retention of top-secret information after the end of his term in office.

In that case, Trump has been hit with charges including obstruction -- an indication of why Smith may have sought the nondisclosure order relating to the warrant. The appeals stated as much in its unsealed decision.

"The district court found that there were 'reasonable grounds to believe' that disclosing the warrant to former President Trump 'would seriously jeopardize the ongoing investigation' by giving him 'an opportunity to destroy evidence, change patterns of behavior or notify confederates," the appeals court decision reads.

"The warrant required Twitter to turn over all requested information by Jan. 27, 2023."

The nondisclosure order was to remain in effect for 180 days after its issuance, meaning it would have expired on July 25.

"We'll get back to you soon," a spokesperson for X said when reached by UPI.

After the news broke, Trump took to his social media platform Truth Social to complain.

"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," Trump said in a statement.

"My Political Opponent is going CRAZY trying to infringe on my Campaign for President. Nothing like this has ever happened before. Does the First Amendment still exist? Did Deranged Jack Smith tell the Unselects to DESTROY & DELETE all evidence? These are DARK DAYS IN AMERICA!"

After Musk bought Twitter late last year, he reinstated banned accounts of controversial figures, including Trump, who had previously been permanently banned several days after the Jan. 6 riots in Washington. At the time, Twitter said it was banning Trump because his tweets had been misleading for months leading up to and after the November presidential election.

After a poll in late 2022, Musk reinstated Trump's account, but the former president has not returned to the platform, instead choosing to rely on his Truth Social platform for messaging.