Washington DC - A federal court has ruled that prosecutors will be allowed access to private, direct messages (DMs) Donald Trump sent and received using Twitter during his presidency.

According to ABC News, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday rejected an appeal from Twitter that sought to keep special counsel Jack Smith and his team from being granted access to Trump's account data.

While the court did not include reasoning for the rejection, a small group of conservative jurists issued a statement arguing that the ruling "ignored potentially relevant executive privilege issues."

In January 2023, prosecutors obtained a warrant as part of their election interference probe seeking "data and records related" to the former president's account, @realDonaldTrump.

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The counsel reached out to Twitter, which was purchased by Elon Musk only months earlier in October 2022. The platform was resistant to complying, however, and filed an appeal to block the effort.

Musk reinstated Trump's account in November 2022 although the former president continued using Truth Social, a platform which he co-created after being banned from Twitter for posts he shared in 2021 during the January 6 Capitol riots.

The latest ruling allows Smith to keep and use evidence obtained thus far but Twitter may decide to appeal the ruling, which would send the final decision to the US Supreme Court.