Elon Musk’s offer Wednesday to publish a countersuit he filed against Twitter last week was rejected by the judge overseeing the bombshell case late in the day.
Delaware Court of Chancery Judge Kathaleen McCormick ruled that Musk’s counterclaims, response and affirmative defenses to Twitter’s lawsuit will be made public Friday afternoon, according to court documents.
The decision gave Twitter a victory in the first of what will likely be many skirmishes after the social media site had argued that releasing the documents could expose “confidential” business information, The Post has learned.
The fight centers around the 164-page counterclaim that Musk filed on Twitter last Friday. The lawsuit, which was filed under seal and has not yet been seen by the public, represents an escalation in the battle over the Tesla CEO’s abandoned $44 billion deal to buy Twitter.
Companies can often redact material from legal documents that could reveal confidential information about their business, and Twitter argued that it needs more time to see “what information is [Musk’s] filings, if any, to designate as confidential.”
Musk’s legal team claimed that Twitter is engaged in a stalling tactic to get ahead of the story in the press. They said in their counterclaim Wednesday that Twitter is expected to file its response to Musk’s lawsuit by Thursday, and that Twitter’s response to Musk’s counterclaim could be publicly available before Musk’s counterclaim , unfairly giving the company an advantage. media coverage
Musk’s team said Twitter is engaged in a stalled tactic to get ahead of the story in the press. AFP via Getty Images
“Twitter should not be allowed to continue to bury the side of the story it does not want to be revealed publicly,” Musk’s attorney Edward Micheletti wrote in a letter to McCormick.
Micheletti added that Twitter was trying to bend court rules to “make the public their response to the defendants’ story before the defendants’ story can be told.”
Musk’s side believes Twitter should not request any redaction of the counterclaim because none of its content “meets the seal standard,” according to emails between the two sides released Wednesday as court exhibits.
The trial in Delaware Court of Chancery will open on October 17. Bloomberg via Getty Images
Under court rules, Musk’s counterclaim and Twitter’s response should be available to the public no later than Friday, potentially in redacted form.
Shares of Twitter closed up 0.1% at $41.00 on Wednesday.
Shares have risen about 26% since the company sued Musk on July 12 in an attempt to force him to honor his agreement to take over Twitter for $54.20 a share, which indicating that investors are increasingly optimistic about Twitter’s chances in the legal battle.
Ahead of the trial, which is set to open on October 17, Musk and Twitter have been sending subpoenas to try to gather evidence to bolster their cases.
Musk has subpoenaed Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan, two banks that advised Twitter on Musk’s takeover bid, the Financial Times reported Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Twitter has subpoenaed several members of Musk’s Silicon Valley social circle, including elite tech investors Marc Andreessen, Chamath Palihapitiya, David Sacks, Steve Jurvetson, Jason Calacanis, Keith Rabois and Joe Lonsdale, the Washington Post reported Monday Post.
Lonsdale blasted the Twitter subpoenas as a “giant harassing fishing expedition” in a tweet on Monday.
“I have nothing to do with it apart from a few sarcophagous comments, but I got a document warning ‘YOU ARE HEREBY COMMANDED,'” Lonsdale lamented.