Prosecutors working for Jack Smith, the particular counsel who has twice introduced indictments towards former President Donald J. Trump, obtained a search warrant early this 12 months for Mr. Trump’s long-dormant Twitter account as a part of their inquiry into his try and overturn the 2020 election, in line with courtroom papers unsealed on Wednesday.

The warrant, which was signed by a federal choose in Washington in January after Elon Musk took over Twitter, now known as X, is the primary recognized instance of prosecutors immediately looking Mr. Trump’s communications and provides a brand new dimension to the scope of the particular counsel’s efforts to analyze the previous president.

The courtroom papers, which emerged from an attraction by Twitter difficult part of the choose’s determination to challenge the warrant, didn’t reveal what prosecutors have been searching for in Mr. Trump’s Twitter account, which the tech firm shut down for almost two years quickly after the assault on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

But the papers point out that prosecutors acquired permission from the choose to not inform Mr. Trump for months that they’d obtained the warrant for his account. The prosecutors feared that if Mr. Trump realized in regards to the warrant, it “would seriously jeopardize the ongoing investigation” by giving him “an opportunity to destroy evidence, change patterns of behavior, [or] notify confederates,” the papers mentioned.

Mr. Trump rapidly responded to the news in regards to the warrant in a message on his personal social media web site, Truth Social.

“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,” he wrote. “My Political Opponent is going CRAZY trying to infringe on my Campaign for President.”

The existence of the warrant was earlier reported by Politico.

The undeniable fact that prosecutors quietly obtained a choose’s permission greater than seven months in the past to look into Mr. Trump’s Twitter account underscores how a lot of the particular counsel’s work might have taken place out of public view. Much of the investigation into Mr. Trump’s efforts to keep up his grip on energy and into his different federal case — the one associated to his dealing with of labeled supplies — has been performed in entrance of federal grand juries, which function below strict guidelines of secrecy.

In the chaotic interval between the election and Jan. 6, Mr. Trump’s Twitter account was one of many nation’s most distinguished platforms on social media, with hundreds of thousands of followers. That prosecutors requested for a warrant to look the account suggests they needed particular firm information or have been fascinated with some nonpublic facet of the account — although it stays unclear exactly what that will have been.

As a part of their sprawling investigation into election interference, prosecutors have seized cellphones and different digital gadgets from a few of Mr. Trump’s shut aides and legal professionals. Those included at the least two individuals recognized as the previous president’s co-conspirators within the indictment towards him filed this month: John Eastman, a lawyer who suggested Mr. Trump on a plan to stress his vp, Mike Pence, into throwing the election his approach at a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, and Jeffrey Clark, a Justice Department loyalist who Mr. Trump sought to put in as appearing lawyer basic.

The election fees filed towards Mr. Trump accuse him of three overlapping conspiracies to defraud the United States, to disrupt the certification of the election at a continuing on the Capitol on Jan. 6, and to deprive individuals of the best to have their votes counted.

Mr. Trump’s relentless use of Twitter is detailed a number of instances within the indictment.

The indictment notes, as an example, how Mr. Trump used Twitter on Dec. 19, 2020, to summon his followers to Washington on Jan. 6 for what he described as a “wild” protest. The message in the end served as a lightning rod for each far-right extremists and atypical Trump supporters who descended on town that day, answering Mr. Trump’s name.

The indictment additionally describes how Mr. Trump used Twitter within the run-up to Jan. 6 to instill in his followers “the false expectation” that Mr. Pence had the authority to make use of his position in overseeing the certification continuing on the Capitol “to reverse the election outcome” in Mr. Trump’s favor.

On Jan. 6 itself, Mr. Trump continued posting messages on Twitter that stored up this drumbeat of “knowingly false statements aimed at pressuring the vice president,” the indictment mentioned. Ultimately, when Mr. Pence declined to provide in to the stress, Mr. Trump posted yet one more tweet blaming the vp for not having “the courage to do what should have been done to protect our country and our Constitution.”

One minute after the tweet was despatched, the indictment mentioned, Secret Service brokers have been compelled to evacuate Mr. Pence to a safe location. And all through that afternoon, it added, rioters roamed the Capitol and its grounds, shouting issues like “Traitor Pence” and “Hang Mike Pence.”