• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, February 10, 2025

Elon Musk's X Corp. and President Donald Trump have officially resolved litigation over Trump's 2021 suspension from X, formerly Twitter.

Attorneys for X and Trump late Friday asked the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to dismiss Trump's appeal of a lower court ruling that threw out his lawsuit against the platform. Terms were not disclosed in the court papers.

The move comes as Musk's controversial “Department of Government Efficiency” is accessing a trove of data held by federal agencies, in an attempt to advise Trump on potential funding cuts.

The settlement will resolve a lawsuit brought by Trump in July 2021, when he claimed that X violated the First Amendment by suspending his account after the January 6 riot at the Capitol.

U.S. District Court Judge James Donato in the Northern District of California dismissed Trump's complaint in May 2022, ruling that only the government -- and not private companies like X -- are bound by the First Amendment prohibition on censorship.

After Donato issued the ruling, Musk acquired X and reversed the decision to suspend Trump's account.

Even though Trump's account had been reinstated, he appealed Donato's ruling to the 9th Circuit, where he argued that X had acted as a “censorship proxy” for the government.

A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit heard arguments in the case in October 2023, but did not issue a decision.

Trump was also temporarily banned by Facebook and YouTube after insurrectionists stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, in an effort to prevent the Senate from certifying former President Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 election. Those companies also later allowed Trump back on their platforms.

Trump sued Facebook and YouTube on the same day he sued X over the account suspensions.

Last month, Meta Platforms agreed to pay Trump $25 million to settle the matter.