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Kyle Cheney Profile picture
@kyledcheney
Aug 16, 2023 • 13 tweets • 8 min read • Read on X
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NEW: Jack Smith obtained a stunning amount of Trump’s data from Twitter — DMs (yes, there were DMs), location info, draft tweets and more — newly unsealed court docs show. https://t.co/ZPNSswoF3Wpolitico.com/news/2023/08/1…

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But that’s just the start. The documents show Twitter mounted an unprecedented effort to impede the search warrant by notifying Trump — prompting an incredulous Judge Beryl Howell to wonder if Elon Musk was trying to “cozy up” to him. https://t.co/mVlasM13bOpolitico.com/news/2023/08/1…
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Prosecutors repeatedly described Trump learning about their search warrant for his Twitter data as a serious threat to the investigation and to witnesses. https://t.co/suzboQeuKtpolitico.com/news/2023/08/1…
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The bottom line: Twitter pleaded to inform Trump about a search warrant in a way that it apparently never did in its 17-year existence with any other user. It did this despite having no knowledge of the basis for the warrant or nondisclosure order. politico.com/news/2023/08/1…
MORE: Twitter’s basis for this was the prospect that some DMs could be covered be executive privilege. Howell and prosecutors were incredulous that Trump would be DMing close senior advisers to do official business https://t.co/QJfI5XyMG0politico.com/news/2023/08/1…

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Twitter says it doesn’t read users’ DMs but determined Trump sent/received them based on storage data: https://t.co/ONldmtkFnPpolitico.com/news/2023/08/1…
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Howell kept returning to the theme of the company, under Musk seeming to want to ingratiate itself to Trump. She said many users with valid privilege claims (marital, religious, etc) don’t get that kind of treatment. So why Trump?

https://t.co/lBVGp9KWdUpolitico.com/news/2023/08/1…
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Read the newly unsealed filings here:

And here: https://t.co/QyCRvwWSD2dcd.uscourts.gov/content/doc-50…
dcd.uscourts.gov/content/doc-50…
SIDE NOTE: An appeals court panel that upheld Howell’s contempt order against Twitter caused a boom of news stories saying Judge Howell found Trump was a flight risk (left).

She actually said the exact opposite (right). https://t.co/wdAdgtE6s7cadc.uscourts.gov/internet/opini…

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MORE: One thing prosecutors appeared to pursue is who *currently* has the keys to the @realdonaldtrump account.

Apparently, at least as of February, the list included Trump’s representatives to NARA (left). That list (right) includes some fun names.

https://t.co/GWnQb7qRLtpolitico.com/news/2023/08/1…

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@realDonaldTrump The discussion about Trump’s “fleets” is amazing. In sum:

Judge: WTF are fleets?

Twitter lawyer: No idea (!) just heard about them today

Special counsel: WTF are fleets?! But also, you better give us all of Donald Trump’s fleets.

https://t.co/8oXs1wVPBwpolitico.com/news/2023/08/1…

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NOTABLE: Chief Judge Boasberg, who took over grand jury matters from Howell in March, lifted Twitter's non-disclosure order in June (when it was due to expire), which authorized Twitter to inform Trump about the search warrant.

Unclear if they told him.

https://t.co/MDHejUVUdrpolitico.com/news/2023/08/1…

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In one of its unsealed filings, Twitter acknowledges that — given his aversion to texts and emails — Trump's DMs may be "the only such electronic communications written by the former President himself." https://t.co/EeGNT0Dwmcpolitico.com/news/2023/08/1…
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More from @kyledcheney

Kyle Cheney Profile picture
Jan 29
Judges around the country are eyeing what's happening in Minnesota. In a ruling freeing a detained immigrant here, Judge Goodwin of West Virginia said he couldn't ignore the crises in MN.

"Constitutional rights do not only protect persons when a lawsuit has been filed. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…Image
Judge Traynor becomes latest in a vanishingly small -- but steadily growing -- minority of judges to side with the Trump administration's mandatory detention policy. He says it's a "sorrowful conclusion" to remove a law-abiding man from his family.

Notably, Tryanor -- a North Dakota-based Trump appointee -- is apparently handling cases in Minnesota due to the immense backlog of habeas petitions.

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…Image
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UPDATE: Another judge in Minnesota, Reagan appointee David Doty, rules a detention by ICE illegal — and threatens contempt for a failure to return the man to Minnesota. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…Image
Read 9 tweets
Kyle Cheney Profile picture
Jan 26
HAPPENING NOW: Minnesota v. Noem hearing is underway before Judge Menendez, who will weigh whether to order an end to Operation Metro Surge. AG Keith Ellison is at counsel table for the state.
Lawyer for the state, Lindsey Middlecamp, begins by demanding immediate end to "unlawful and unchecked invasion" by federal agents. She cites the Alex Pretti killing and says things are escalating, not improving.
Middlecamp says AG Bondi's letter to the state amounted to a "ransom note" and that messages from her and President Trump amounted to an unconstitutional attempt to coerce the state to change its policies.
Read 16 tweets
Kyle Cheney Profile picture
Jan 25
Since July, I've tracked at least 2,300 cases in which federal judges have ruled ICE has illegally detained people without bond or due process.

This is one that stands out:
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…Image
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Minnesota courts have been inundated with these cases since the beginning of Operation Metro Surge last month. Here's a ruling by Judge Bryan from yesterday, freeing a man who as detained after living in the US for 20 years with no criminal record. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…Image
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Here's another ruling in Minnesota, also yesterday, releasing a man who was forcefully detained by ICE despite having *active* refugee status. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…Image
Read 15 tweets
Kyle Cheney Profile picture
Jan 15
HAPPENING NOW; Judge Young is picking up where he left off in his remarkable opinion describing an unconstitutional scheme to arrest/deport pro-Palestinian activists in violation of their constitutional rights:

"There was no policy here. What happened here is an unconstitutional conspiracy to pick off certain people, to twist the laws."

"Two cabinet secretaries conspired ... they intentionally, knowing what they were doing, counseled by professionals who cautioned them, nevertheless went ahead to pick off these people with the intention that your clients would be chilled. And did so rather effectively, by the way."
YOUNG: "The big problem in this case is that the cabinet secretaries and ostensibly the president of the United States are not honoring the First Amendment."
YOUNG, speaking of Secretary Rubio and Secretary Noem: "These cabinet secretaries have failed in their duty to uphold the constitution."
Read 4 tweets
Kyle Cheney Profile picture
Jan 13
HAPPENING NOW: In federal court in MN, DOJ is struggling to articulate why a person following an ICE vehicle — so long as they are obeying traffic laws — can be stopped for "reasonable suspicion" of a crime.

Judge Menendez sharply questioning that contention.
Judge Menendez has not tipped her hand entirely yet but she seems concerned that DOJ provided no firsthand evidence to counter the specific, evidence-backed claims by protesters that they were arrested / seized in retaliation for First Amendment speech.
Under questioning from Menendez, DOJ struggling again to articulate why ICE officers can draw guns on drivers who are following them, so long as those drivers are not breaking traffic laws or posing any other articulable threat.
Read 6 tweets
Kyle Cheney Profile picture
Jan 11
BREAKING: A day after the Minneapolis shooting, Secretary Noem quietly signed a new policy barring congressional visits to ICE facilities without a week's advance notice.

s3.documentcloud.org/documents/2646…Image
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NEW: ICE's renewed block on unannounced congressional vists comes a month after a judge struck down a similar policy.

But the new version is tailored to sidestep that ruling by relying only on funds from the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act."

politico.com/news/2026/01/1…
Judge COBB's original ruling did concede that if DHS used only One Big Beautiful Bill Act funds to manage lawmaker visits, her ruling might change.

But the timing of Noem's new policy is notable: one day after Renee Good's death roiled the nation. politico.com/news/2026/01/1…Image
Read 5 tweets

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