In a case sure to give “slide into my DMs” a whole new meaning, WikiLeaks just got subpoenaed via Twitter.
On Friday, a law firm representing the Democratic National Convention in its civil lawsuit against WikiLeaks and other defendants formally notified the organization that it is being sued, CBS News reports. The Twitter account that served Wikileaks online appears to have been set up this month by the DNC’s law firm, Cohen Milstein, for the sole purpose of serving papers to Julian Assange’s organization.
The lawsuit also includes the Russian government and Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, claiming they colluded to sway the 2016 presidential election in Trump’s favor. WikiLeaks’s role involved releasing a massive trove of internal DNC emails, including ones written by Hillary Clinton and her campaign chairman, John Podesta, in the days leading up to the presidential election.
According to CBS, the DNC’s law firm tried to subpoena WikiLeaks via email, but the letters bounced. So they sought the court’s permission to subpoena WikiLeaks via Twitter, arguing that the WikiLeaks Twitter account is very active even if their email is not.
The move is unusual, but not without precedent. As CBS noted, the DNC’s legal team used a U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ruling that Twitter could be used to notify defendants who had an active account. Twitter is not the only social media network to be used as a process server—Facebook has also been used to serve legal documents. This is why we’re sticking with Pinterest.
@wikileaks By Court order, you are being served with the following legal documents: https://t.co/ICg8qWnsUy, https://t.co/ZP2tTPJ4pb, https://t.co/RKue30s4hM, https://t.co/q5g0G1rQpQ.
All of these documents may be found here: https://t.co/NOCgvQhh2j.— Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll Process Server (@ProcessServiceC) August 10, 2018
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