The Department of Justice (DOJ) retracted a grand jury subpoena earlier this year for information that would identify the person behind an anonymous Twitter account parodying Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), according to a court document unsealed on Tuesday.
The filing was revealed a day after a federal court in Washington, D.C., unsealed a motion showing the Trump administration’s DOJ had issued a grand jury subpoena to Twitter demanding that it turn over the identifying information regarding the user @NunesAlt.
The latest document unsealed Tuesday shows that the U.S. Attorney’s office in D.C. withdrew the subpoena in March, two months after President Biden took office.
In the filing, the DOJ asked a federal judge in March to deny Twitter’s motion to quash the subpoena, saying the case was moot since the demand had been withdrawn March 17.
On Monday it was revealed that Twitter had asked a federal judge to throw out the subpoena, arguing that it raised First Amendment concerns.
The subpoena also stoked suspicions that the Trump administration was using the DOJ’s prosecutorial powers to help Nunes, a close ally of former President Trump, in his legal efforts to retaliate against critics.
“It appears to Twitter that the Subpoena may be related to Congressman Devin Nunes’s repeated efforts to unmask individuals behind parody accounts critical of him,” the motion Monday read. “His efforts to suppress critical speech are as well-publicized as they are unsuccessful.”
A Nunes spokesman did not respond when asked for comment.