Elon Musk’s ‘baseless and harassing’ claims against SEC swatted by judge who gives him a week to agree on Twitter testimony

Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler issued an reveal Saturday giving Musk, his team and the SEC a week to agree on a date and location for Musk’s testimony. In a court docket hearing last December, Beeler said she would challenge an reveal if the two aspects couldn’t agree on when and where the Tesla and SpaceX CEO would testify.

“The parties, at least initially, agreed to a date but ultimately the respondent did not appear and resists the subpoena on the grounds that the SEC’s investigation is baseless and harassing and seeks irrelevant information,” Beeler wrote within the reveal in federal court docket in Northern California.

“Also, he contends that the subpoena — issued by an SEC staff member appointed by the SEC’s Director of Enforcement — exceeds the SEC’s authority because it was not issued by an officer appointed by the President, a court docket, or the head of a department,” as required by the U.S. Constitution, she added.

Beeler said, then again, that the court docket is imposing the SEC’s subpoena and that the testimony is “not unduly burdensome” for Musk. The SEC had given Musk the option to testify in Texas, where he lives.

The SEC has been conducting a fact-discovering investigation into the length earlier than Musk’s Twitter takeover, when the San Francisco-based social media company was composed publicly traded. The agency said it has not concluded any federal securities laws had been violated.

Musk has already testified within the case twice. But since then, according to the judge’s reveal, the SEC has acquired “thousands of latest documents” from various parties, together with a whole lot of documents from Musk.

He closed his $44 billion agreement to purchase Twitter and take it private in October 2022, after a monthslong legal battle with the social media company’s outdated leadership.

After signing a deal to acquire Twitter in April 2022, Musk tried to back out of it, leading the company to sue him to force him to fight via with the acquisition.

The SEC and a lawyer for Musk did not immediately respond to messages in search of comment on Monday.