Delaware Judge Denies Musk's Request to Delay Twitter Trial, But Adds Whistleblower Claims

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - Delaware judge Kathaleen McCormick has denied entrepreneur Elon Musk's request to delay the Twitter trial, but approved his request to add a whistleblower's claims to his countersuit, according to court documents released on Wednesday.

"In a version of this last argument, during the September 6, 2022 oral argument on this motion, Defendants took the position that I could mitigate Twitter’s burden by ordering Twitter to produce narrow categories of 'low hanging fruit' from the expanded date range. But Defendants did not ask for the low-hanging fruit when they argued their Third Discovery Motion. Instead, Defendants overshot and asked for too much. That was a mistake, and I denied their Third Discovery Motion for that reason," the judge said in a letter decision.

The judge, however, granted Musk's request to add former Twitter security chief Peiter Zatko's claims to his Twitter countersuit.

"The newly published Whistleblower Complaint would be grounds in most instances to permit an amendment under the low bar of Rule 15(a). Twitter argues that the amendment would be futile, but their arguments falter against the exceedingly movant-friendly standard of Rule 15(a). I am reticent to say more concerning the merits of the counterclaims at this posture before they have been fully litigated. The world will have to wait for the post-trial decision," a separate letter decision said.

In April, Musk backed out from a deal he signed on the acquisition of Twitter for $44 billion. Musk said he decided to abandon the acquisition of the company as he was concerned over the true number of spam accounts. Twitter sued Musk for abandoning the deal, but Musk countersued.

In July, Musk’s legal team initially filed a notice to terminate the Twitter acquisition, citing the company’s alleged non-compliance with its contractual obligations, including purported inability to provide information needed to complete a comprehensive analysis of spam and fake accounts.

In August, his team filed another notice to Twitter to terminate the deal, seeking to use the ex-security chief’s allegations of security flaws as additional legal argument.