Home / Crime and Justice / Supreme Court voids conviction of ex-Twitter employee in spying case
Supreme Court voids conviction of ex-Twitter employee in spying case
11 Jun
Summary
- Supreme Court overturned an obstruction conviction of a former Twitter employee.
- The court ruled he was tried in the wrong state for falsifying a document.
- The former employee was accused of spying for Saudi Arabia.
The U.S. Supreme Court has overturned a conviction against a former Twitter employee accused of spying for Saudi Arabia. The justices unanimously decided that Ahmad Abouammo was wrongly convicted in California for knowingly falsifying a document to impede an FBI investigation.
Writing for the court, Justice Elena Kagan stated that the trial should not have taken place in California. The offense of falsifying a document to impede an investigation must be tried in the location where the falsification occurred.
Abouammo's interactions with FBI agents, including creating a fake invoice, took place at his home in Seattle, Washington. Therefore, the trial should have been held in Washington state, not California.
The ruling does not affect other convictions Abouammo faces, including acting as an unregistered foreign agent and fraud. Abouammo, who worked at Twitter from 2013 to 2015, was released from prison in June 2025.
