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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
Jul 24
NEWS: Trump has withdrawn Alina Habba's nomination to be US attorney in New Jersey, part of a multistep maneuver intended to keep her in the position as acting US attorney beyond an initial Friday deadline.
Here's how it works:

1) Habba resigns as interim US attorney, ahead of a Friday deadline
2) Trump withdraws Habba's nomination to take the job permanently
3) AG Bondi appoints Habba First Assistant US attorney
4) Habba automatically becomes acting US attoreny bc of the vacancy.
The reason Trump has to withdraw her nomination is because the Federal Vacancies Reform Act prohibits the nominee for a Senate-confirmed office from holding the post on an "acting" basis.
Read 5 tweets
Kyle Cheney Profile picture
Jul 10
NEW: A batch of newly revealed text messages and emails from fired DOJ attorney Erez Reuveni show in real time how DOJ officials handled court orders related to the Alien Enemies Act, Kilmar Abrego Garcia and more.

They lend contemporaneous support to Reuveni's claim that Emil Bove suggested telling a court "fuck you." politico.com/news/2025/07/1…Image
There's a lot to unpack in the texts and emails between Reuveni and his colleagues. They joke morbidly about beign fired, and are grateful Boasberg was on vacation when the AEA crisis erupted. politico.com/news/2025/07/1…Image
Reuveni repeatedly told people inside the administration that Boasberg had ordered DHS not to deplane people after they landed in El Salvador. There seemed to be no ambiguity until ... politico.com/news/2025/07/1…Image
Read 8 tweets
Kyle Cheney Profile picture
Jul 7
HAPPENING NOW: Judge Xinis is pressing DOJ on why they claimed on May 27 they had no power to bring Abrego Garcia back to the US evne though they had secretly secured a grand jury indictment against him 6 days earlier.
DOJ attorney now contradicts the government's sworn testimony from Tennessee criminal case, saying Abrego Garcia criminal probe began before April 28. Xinis presses her on this and she says she can't explain the contradiction.
XINIS is incredulous at how little information DOJ has about what played out when they're trying to get her to dismiss the case. So far DOJ is basically shrugging and it's just agitating the judge further.
Read 11 tweets
Kyle Cheney Profile picture
Jun 16
BREAKING: A federal judge in Massachusetts (the Reagan-appointed William Young) has declared the Trump administration's cuts to NIH grants — ostensibly over Trump's EOs on gender ideology and DEI — are "illegal" and "void." He's ordering many grants restored.
YOUNG: "I am hesitant to draw this conclusion, but I have an unflinching obligation to draw it – that this represents racial discrimination. And discrimination against America’s LGBTQ community. That’s what this is. I would be blind not to call it out. My duty is to call it out."
MORE YOUNG: "It is palpably clear that these directives and the set of terminated grants here also are designed to frustrate, to stop, research that may bear on the health – we’re talking about health here, the health of Americans, of our LGBTQ community. That’s appalling."
Read 6 tweets
Kyle Cheney Profile picture
Jun 13
BREAKING: Judge Breyer orders Trump to return control of the National Guard back to California, saying the call-up was illegal. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…Image
Breyer stays his order until noon tomorrow, which should be enough time for Trump to seek emergency appeal at 9th Circuit and perhaps Supreme Court. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…Image
NEW: Judge Breyer said the violence in Los Angeles falls "far short" of the "rebellion" Trump described to justify calling in the troops. And he said Trump's use of the military over the actions of "stray bad actors" was "untenable and dangerous."

politico.com/news/2025/06/1…Image
Read 6 tweets
Kyle Cheney Profile picture
Jun 12
HAPPENING NOW: Emergency hearing in Newsom v. Trump, re dpeloyment of the Guard and Marines.

Judge Breyer making some "preliminary" remarks.
BREYER says he's 'appreciative' of both parties for filing a detailed record with the court on a short timeframe and says these are very serious/weighty matters and he intends to act as quickly as the urgency of the matter requires.
Breyer asks a hypothetical: If Trump didn't follow the letter of the statute in calling up the guard, would his order be invalid?

DOJ says no, and court has no role in policing it either.
Read 9 tweets

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