Subpoena to Twitter Is Said to Concern a Purported Threat to McConnell, Not Nunes

Details are trickling out about the Justice Department’s use of a grand jury to attempt to identify the user behind a parody account mocking Representative Devin Nunes.

WASHINGTON — The Trump-era Justice Department’s attempt to identify the person behind a Twitter account devoted to mocking Representative Devin Nunes, Republican of California, stemmed from a U.S. Capitol Police investigation into a purported online threat to Senator Mitch McConnell, not to Mr. Nunes, according to two law enforcement officials. The account by the officials, which dovetailed with earlier reporting by CNN, filled in some gaps about the Trump Justice Department’s issuance of a grand-jury subpoena in November in an effort to identify the user behind the @NunesAlt parody account. But much about the issue remains murky. On Monday, a federal judge unsealed court filings showing that Twitter had balked at complying with the subpoena, questioning whether it was an abuse of power to go after a critic of a close Trump ally. The social media company noted that Mr. Nunes and his lawyer had filed lawsuits seeking to identify his online critics, including the @NunesAlt account.