On Wednesday, Sept. 7, a Delaware judge denied Elon Musk's request to delay his trial with Twitter after a whistleblower's accusations came to light.
The trial is regarding Musk's decision to back out of his $44 billion deal to purchase Twitter. Even though the trial's schedule will still be followed, the judge approved Musk's request to use the whistleblower's statements against Twitter in his arguments.
Judge Denies Trial Delay Request
According to CNBC, the trial is expected to start on Oct. 17 and will run for five days. In early September, Musk's attorneys requested that the trial happens in November.
But, Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick said she denied the request to delay the trial because prolonging the procedure would harm Twitter's business.
Still, Chancellor McCormick said that Musk's request to amend his counterclaim clears the low bar of the court's rules for doing so.
Musk's lawyers asked to add claims related to the whistleblower complaint made by Twitter's former head of security, Peiter Zatko.
According to The Guardian, his team argued the complaint, which detailed what Zatko alleged were egregious security failings by the company, would show Twitter breached the terms of the merger agreement.
Zatko's Claims
According to CNN, Zatko sent a 200-page disclosure in August to US lawmakers and regulators about Twitter's chaotic environment.
Zatko claims that Twitter does not have the incentive and the resources to measure the full scope of bots on its platform correctly. He also alleges that the platform suffers from a range of other security vulnerabilities that it has failed to fix for years.
Musk claimed that Twitter was under-reporting the number of spam and fake accounts, and he said that it was one of the reasons why he decided to back out of the deal. However, he had no evidence to support his claim against the platform.
Twitter then said Musk is throwing accusations against the company to get out of a deal for which he now has buyer's remorse amid a market downturn.
Many merger law experts have said that Twitter had the stronger legal argument in the case.
The experts have also said the success of Musk's bot argument will come down to how closely the Delaware Chancery Court judge wants to focus the case on the specific language in the contract versus allowing his more tangential arguments.
However, the whistleblower's disclosure could help turn the tables. It can also encourage the court to pay closer attention to the bot issue.
Musk's legal team could attempt to seize on other claims in the disclosure unrelated to bots, including allegations that Twitter made misrepresentations to regulators about its privacy and security practices, as additional reasons he should be able to walk away from the $44 billion deal.
Twitter Fights Back
In a statement to CNN, a Twitter spokesperson said that what was revealed is a false narrative about the company and its privacy and data security practices that are riddled with inconsistencies and inaccuracies.
Twitter added that Zatko's allegations and opportunistic timing appear designed to capture attention and inflict harm on the company and its shareholders.
Related Article: Elon Musk Shares How Twitter Board Chose Not to Disclose Complete Spam Prevalence: Half of the Employees have Access to Sensitive Data, Whistleblower
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Written by Sophie Webster
