Hi, everyone. It's Borklack in the East. We are learning more today about a high stakes

behind the scenes legal battle. They may ultimately prove critical in efforts to hold the ex-president

accountable on one side, the social media giant formerly known as Twitter, now known as

X on the other special counsel Jack Smith, wanting to peer deep inside Trump's Twitter account,

which the ex-president wielded like a weapon as he sought to overturn his defeat in the 2020

election. Using it liberally to pedal baseless fraud claims to his millions of followers

until assemble and then direct a violent mob against the U.S. Capitol and on his own vice

president on January 6th. Now, the Justice Department won the battle and Politico reports

this. Special counsel Jack Smith obtained an extraordinary array of data from Twitter

about Trump's account from direct messages to draft tweets to location data, newly unsealed

court filings revealed. Here's one reason why that matters, according to the New York Times

reporting, quote, while it remained unclear what source of information the messages contained

and who exactly may have written them, it was a revelation that there were private messages

associated with the Twitter account of Mr. Trump, who has famously been cautious about

using written forums of communication in his dealings with AIDS and allies. According

to the court filings, Twitter ultimately handed over direct messages that were sent, received,

deleted, and stored in drafts. You name it, but only after dragging its feet. Politico reports

this, quote, U.S. District Judge, Barrel Howell held Twitter, now known as X, in contempt

of court in February, finding that company $350,000 for missing a court ordered deadline

to comply with Smith's search warrant. And there's more. Politico also reports that the

filing show this, quote, Howell lit into Twitter for taking extraordinary and apparently unprecedented

steps to give Trump advance notice about the search warrant. That's despite prosecutor's

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