Twitter case against Musk: the trial still relevant for the judge, despite the volte-face of the multi-billionaire

by time news

Despite Elon Musk’s about-face, who again offers to buy Twitter, the judge in charge of litigation between the social network and the boss of Tesla indicated on Wednesday that the trial was still scheduled for October 17. Unless both parties formally request a stay of proceedings.

Elon Musk wrote to Twitter on Monday offering to buy the company as originally planned, for $44 billion, as long as the board ends his lawsuit and he gets the necessary funds. But at this stage, “the parties have not asked for the proceedings to be suspended,” Judge Kathaleen McCormick said in a letter to lawyers on Wednesday. “I am therefore continuing with the preparations for the trial,” she added.

Twitter filed a complaint against Elon Musk in July, to force him to honor his commitment made two months earlier. The multibillionaire had just announced that he was ending it, assuring that Twitter had lied to him on certain subjects, in particular the proportion of fake accounts on the platform, which the company denies. Elon Musk is supposed to be questioned tomorrow behind closed doors by the social network’s lawyers.

They asked for sanctions against the contractor, whom they accuse of not having provided all the necessary information, in particular messages sent via the Signal application, known for respecting confidentiality.

Before this new proposal, the ball was in Twitter’s court

“I am forced to conclude that it is probable” that the people in charge of the preservation of the messages related to the case “allowed the automatic deletion of communications on Signal (…) and that they were therefore irretrievably lost” , notes the judge. She demands that the SpaceX boss’s lawyers provide certain missing exchanges but reserves her decision on possible sanctions.

Before Tuesday, everything indicated that Twitter was on track to win in court against the tempestuous businessman.

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