Was Smith trying to access Trump’s DMs or his Twitter posts? The story doesn’t really elaborate.
Trump wouldn’t need to direct message on Twitter.
Dan Bongino thinks they are going after the metadata…in other words see who liked, reposted or commented on Trump’s post.
This information would be helpful for the government to compile an enemies list.
Smith was trying to get everything related to Trump’s Twitter account, including DMS, messages and posts that were composed and not sent, as well as everyone who followed, unfollowed, liked/unliked, retweeted, *or mentioned* his account. Absurdly broad.
He did it in a manner which, with the cooperation of the court panel, denied any ability for Trump to assert executive privilege or even know about the attempt, as the Presidential Records Act requires that he be informed at least 30 days before the Archivist turns over any of his documents so that he can decide whether to go through judicial review to assert Executive Privilege. The National Archives also had a copy of Trump’s account, but Smith went directly to Twitter so that Trump would not be informed.
Smith was/is trying and using every freedom-stealing dirty trick in the corrupt DOJ book to get Trump, period. Once, when Hillary was working on the Watergate House investigation staff, she argued that Nixon should not be allow benefit of counsel in addressing accusations involving Watergate. Were it possible, Smith would be arguing the same for Trump.