The Justice Department's Office of International Affairs sent Paris prosecutors a two-page letter on Friday refusing to help their criminal investigation of X, the Wall Street Journal reported Saturday. [1] "This investigation seeks to use the criminal legal system in France to regulate a public square for the free expression of ideas and opinions in a manner contrary to the First Amendment of the United States Constitution," the letter said. [1] It called the French requests "an effort to entangle the United States in a politically charged criminal proceeding aimed at wrongfully regulating through prosecution the business activities of a social media platform." [1]

What had read through Friday as a diplomatic signal — reports that the Justice Department would decline French requests — arrived on Saturday as text. The timing is narrow. French investigators have summoned Elon Musk and former X chief executive Linda Yaccarino to voluntary interviews in Paris on Monday, April 20, after a February raid on the platform's French offices. [1] Paris prosecutors said Saturday they had no knowledge of the Journal's letter, and stressed that "the French constitution guarantees the separation of powers and the independence of the judiciary." [1]

The French case, opened in January 2025, originally examined whether X's algorithm had tilted toward Musk's political views. It expanded through the year to include Grok-generated Holocaust denial, non-consensual sexual deepfakes and alleged distribution of child sexual abuse material. [2] The Justice Department's letter collapses that full stack into one frame: speech regulation by prosecution.

Musk shared the Journal article on X on Saturday with one line: "Indeed, this needs to stop." [1] An xAI official told the Journal the company was "grateful to the Justice Department for rejecting this effort." [2] The letter does not kill the probe. It plants American speech doctrine on European ground at the diplomatic layer for the first time.

-- MAYA CALLOWAY, New York