Elon Musk Subpoenas Twitter Whistleblower
ForbesDec 25, 2022
The Facts
On Mon., Elon Musk's lawyers issued a subpoena to Twitter whistleblower Peiter Zatko as part of an effort to back out of the $44B deal to purchase the social media company.
Zatko recently made a complaint to regulatory agencies and the Justice Dept. accusing Twitter of misleading the public and Musk about its security practices, an accusation Twitter executives deny.
The Spin
Narrative A
This could be the breakthrough Musk needs to make a more legitimate exit from this deal. Although his claims about bots are weak, revelations about data privacy violations could have a better chance of convincing a judge he has a right to terminate his agreement with Twitter.
Narrative B
This might not help Musk as much as he hopes: with the trial coming up quickly, the court may be hesitant to allow him to include these allegations in his case, and Musk would have to meet a higher standard of proving fraud in a federal court.
