Newly released court documents show that Special Counsel Jack Smith obtained a secret search warrant in January in order to gain access to President Trump’s personal Twitter account, which he and his fellow prosecutors believed could contain evidence of possible criminal activity in the lead-up to the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Mr. Trump was not aware of the active search warrant for months.

The request for the warrant to search the account was granted by a district court judge, Beryl Howell, in January. On Wednesday, a written decision was released by three judges of the District of Columbia Circuit — Nina Pillard, Florence Pan, and J. Michelle Childs, all of whom were appointed to the bench by Democratic presidents. 

Judge Pan wrote the unanimous decision to affirm the search warrant and the nondisclosure provision that required the social media giant to refrain from informing Mr. Trump of the search. Twitter, now known as X, argued on appeal that such a search and nondisclosure stipulation would violate both the First Amendment and the Stored Communications Act, which governs when and how the government can access private user information from technology companies. 

Judge Pan wrote that the district court was correct in affirming the warrant because there could be “evidence of criminal offenses” within Mr. Trump’s Twitter account. The social media giant was also fined $350,000 by the district court for failing to provide access to the account until three days after the deadline. 

The warrant was first reported by Politico. 

The decision is partially redacted, as the court imposed a nondisclosure order on Twitter that prevented it from divulging to the public or any interested parties — such as Mr. Trump — the existence and execution of the warrant. 

In affirming the nondisclosure order, Judge Pan noted in the court’s decision that “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.’”

This appeals court decision was argued before the three jurists on May 19, with the opinion being issued to parties on July 18 before the redacted version was released on Wednesday. The district court originally ordered access to the account be granted on January 27. 

It is unclear what Mr. Smith may have been searching for in the account. Mr. Trump is not believed to have used Twitter’s direct messaging feature, so any activity in his account in the lead-up to the January 6 attack is likely to have been entirely public. A search warrant, though, would have given Mr. Smith access to draft tweets.

On Friday at 10 a.m., the case against Mr. Trump will have its first official hearing after his not-guilty plea. The presiding judge, Tanya Chutkan, will decide whether to impose a protective order that could limit the case-related information Mr. Trump and his legal team can discuss publicly. 

Since his indictment in the January 6 case, Mr. Trump has made increasingly harsh statements about Mr. Smith, calling him “deranged” among other imprecations. Mr. Smith first requested the protective order on Friday after Mr. Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that he would be “coming after” anyone who comes after him. 

Prosecutors argued that a protective order is “particularly important in this case” because the former president has a penchant for publicly complaining about “witnesses, judges, attorneys, and others associated with legal matters pending against him.”