Bea Beltran Tech 10.05.2022 22:Oct PM EDT

Twitter, Elon Musk Trial is Still On, Says Judge

Are you still following the whirlwind that is Twitter, Elon Musk, and the Delaware Chancery Court? Just when we thought that it would finally come to an end since Elon Musk finally agreed to buy Twitter again, Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick says that the trial is still on.

A quick recap of what had transpired before the decision. The tech billionaire decided to go ahead with the initial deal of buying Twitter for $44 billion after backing out, but he will only do so if they waive the trial and any court proceedings involved. But you guessed it, it is far from over, as the trial will proceed on October 17th.

Why is the Trial Still Happening?

According to The Verge, the court has not received any filings for a stay, which means the lawyers can continue with the deposition and the trial. The only parties that can change this decision are Twitter and the Tesla Motors CEO, no one else.

One of the main reasons why the Delaware court will proceed with the trial is because of the insistence that Musk has not fully disclosed all his conversations in Signal concerning Twitter. The conversations they refer to were between Musk and other people from the Silicon Valley big leagues.

Twitter demands that Elon Musk must surrender all relevant conversations from January 1st to July 8th, along with accusations of spoliation of evidence. Twitter still claims that Musk is withholding or intentionally destroying "damaging messages," referring to the auto-deleted messages that had been sent using the Signal app.

Chancellor McCormick went as far as ordering Musk's legal team to provide a complete copy of his phone records, which will shine a light on all his conversations and who they had them with, not just the ones on Signal.

In all the messages that must be surrendered as evidence, it must include 19 texts between Musk and Alex Spiro, his lawyer. There was also mention of texts between Larry Ellison, the founder of Oracle, and Musk's co-investor, as it suspiciously falls along the timeline of the deal being put on hold.

Adding to the fact that the tech billionaire had denied using the app before evidence was found saying otherwise, McCormick believes that Musk's custodians allowed the automatic deletion of Signal messages that held key information about the deal.

Will Elon Musk Continue with the Purchase of Twitter?

Since Musk has clearly stipulated that he will continue with the deal only if they adjourn the court trial and all proceedings involved, he might not continue with it again after all.

The sudden change of heart in the acquisition has made Twitter believe that Musk is trying to keep things under wraps, which is why he decided to go with the deal in exchange for putting a stop to the deposition and trial.

Although, even McCormick is unclear whether the messages were deleted before or after Musk was under a duty to preserve evidence, as mentioned on TechCrunch, which could complicate Twitter's case since its claim of Musk destroying evidence is one of their biggest argument.