Headline Roundup • September 7th, 2022
Judge Issues Split-Decision in Ongoing Legal Battle Between Elon Musk and Twitter
Summary from the AllSides News Team
In the ongoing legal battle between Twitter and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Judge Kathaleen McCormick made two rulings ahead of the trail’s start date next month. Musk’s legal team will be allowed to amend their countersuit against Twitter to include allegations regarding the social media site from Twitter’s former head of security, Peiter Zatko. Musk’s legal team’s request to delay the trial a month, however, was denied.
Twitter and Musk have taken each other to court regarding Musk’s cancellation of a $44 billion takeover of the social media company. In Musk’s initial withdrawal from the deal, he claimed it was because Twitter failed to provide adequate information regarding the number of bot and spam accounts on the website. Tuesday’s hearing called that justification into question, as it was revealed that Musk’s apprehension to go through with the deal came, in part at least, from the geopolitical implications of Russia invading Ukraine.
Additionally, his justification has expanded to include Zatko’s whistleblower allegations, whom Twitter’s legal team dismissed as a “disgruntled” former employee.
The judge’s decisions were covered more heavily by left-rated outlets, but coverage itself was fairly consistent. Left- and center-rated outlets highlighted the judge’s voiced frustrations with the Musk legal team, which some right-rated outlets, such as Fox Business (Lean Right Bias), omitted.
Featured Coverage of this Story
REUTERS
Elon Musk scored a legal victory in his battle against Twitter on Wednesday when a Delaware judge said she would let him add claims from a whistleblower to his countersuit against the social media giant — but denied the mogul’s request to delay the trial.
Musk, who is gunning to get out of his agreement to buy Twitter for $44 billion, will be allowed to add claims made by whistleblower Peiter “Mudge” Zatko to his countersuit against Twitter, Delaware Court of Chancery Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick said in a legal filing...
Reuters
A Delaware judge took some digs at Elon Musk's legal team during a pre-trial hearing on Tuesday in Twitter's lawsuit to force the billionaire to honor his $44 billion purchase agreement.
Chancery Court Judge Kathleen St. J. McCormick sounded irritated with Musk's team at several points during the hearing.
She told Musk's lawyers that their work to produce and identify people that had spoken with Musk about the deal for court discovery "bothered [her] a lot."
"I ordered you to do the job," McCormick said. "You had two custodians. Have you...
odd andersen/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
The Delaware judge steering the lawsuit over Twitter Inc. and Elon Musk’s stalled $44 billion takeover said the billionaire chief executive of Tesla Inc. can amend his countersuit to incorporate allegations from a whistleblower complaint by the social-media company’s former head of security.
The judge denied Mr. Musk’s request to push back a trial over the deal in Delaware Chancery Court to November from Oct. 17.
In a decision Wednesday, the judge cited a Chancery Court rule in which leave to amend should be “freely given when justice so requires.”
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