Attorneys for Elon Musk have filed to subpoena former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey in his proposed defense for his ongoing battle with the social media company. Musk is being sued by Twitter in Delaware Chancery Court over his failure to close a $44 billion deal to buy the company — a deal Musk filed to back out of at the beginning of July, saying that there were more bot accounts than he’d been led to believe when he first signed the contract. Musk claimed that the company had not provided him with the relevant information that would allow him to investigate inauthentic Twitter accounts and misrepresented itself, its users, and its value.
In their filing documents, Twitter’s lawyers insisted that Musk entered into a binding legal agreement but “refuses to honor his obligations to Twitter and its stockholders because the deal he signed no longer serves his personal interests.”
The trial will begin on Oct. 17 and will decide whether Musk will be forced to purchase Twitter, pay a fine, or be allowed to walk away from the deal without penalty. The trial will last just five days.
The Tesla CEO countersued Twitter in late July (the documents were unsealed on Aug. 5), claiming that the company misled him and stonewalled his attempts to obtain accurate statistics on the platform’s user count and other details.
Dorsey, who stepped down as CEO of Twitter in November 2021 and left the company’s board of directors in March, has gone on the record in support of the Musk deal to buy Twitter as well as Musk’s “mission” to “extend the light of consciousness.”
I love Twitter. Twitter is the closest thing we have to a global consciousness.
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. 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.
I’m so happy Twitter will continue to serve the public conversation. Around the world, and into the stars!
The subpoena, filed Monday, includes an extensive list of items Dorsey is being asked to provide to Musk’s lawyers, including any communications and documents related to the acquisition deal, executive compensation, user metrics, and how the company identifies inauthentic accounts.
Dorsey’s subpoena is the latest in a series of pretrial filings that have gone out in recent weeks. On Aug. 4, Twitter sent dozens of subpoenas to Musk’s associates in the tech industry. Musk retaliated last week by issuing his own subpoenas to numerous technology companies, executives, and even Twitter’s law firm.