Musk presses for dismissal of Twitter suit, subpoenas Dorsey

Elon Musk is calling for the dismissal of a Twitter shareholder lawsuit over his terminating his multibillion-dollar buyout deal — and subpoenaing the social media company’s former CEO as he fights a lawsuit from Twitter itself seeking to make him complete the takeover.

The moves follow Musk’s unexpected announcement in July that he’d walk away just a few months after making the $44 billion agreement in April, as well as reports that the company lost revenue after Musk pulled back. 

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO terminated the buyout deal due to what he alleged were “false and misleading representations” from Twitter during the agreement processes and the company’s failure to provide information on “the prevalence of fake or spam accounts on Twitter’s platform,” according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

Twitter filed a lawsuit to force Musk to go through with the acquisition, and Musk countersued. 

Musk hinted earlier this month that the deal could still move forward if the social media company would provide information on fake and bot accounts. 

The shareholder suit, lodged in late July, reportedly calls out Musk for “lame rationales” for canceling the deal. 

In response, Musk’s legal team has called the losses that suit seeks to address “purely hypothetical,” according to a new report from Bloomberg, and argued the case should be dismissed.

In a July report on its quarterly earnings, the company cited “uncertainty related to the pending acquisition of Twitter by an affiliate of Elon Musk” as a contributing factor to revenue decreases. 

Musk on Monday subpoenaed former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey in Twitter’s suit against him, according to a filing shared by The Verge.

Twitter declined The Hill’s request for comment.

“In principle, I don’t believe anyone should own or run Twitter. It wants to be a public good at a protocol level, not a company,” Dorsey said on Twitter in April.

“Solving for the problem of it being a company however, Elon is the singular solution I trust. I trust his mission to extend the light of consciousness.”

The shareholder suit, Crispo v. Musk, will be overseen by the same judge presiding over Twitter v. Musk, according to Bloomberg.

The Hill has reached out to Musk for comment.

—Updated at 5:49 p.m.