Elon Musk pushes to delay the Twitter trial while citing whistleblower’s testimony

After Elon Musk tried to get out of his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter and the company sued to hold him to it, his lawyers unsuccessfully tried to hold off the trial until next year, and now they’re pushing for another delay. The Musk team’s proposing a new timeline that would push the week-long trial’s start from the currently scheduled October 17th date until some time in mid- to late-November.

This time, they cite the testimony of former Twitter security head Peiter “Mudge” Zatko, who has filed a whistleblower claim against the company accusing it of security flaws, making “false and misleading statements” to users and the FTC, and hiring agents of foreign governments. His lawyers also submitted an amended filing adding more complaints against Twitter. The filing was submitted under seal, but attached to it is the whistleblower documentation submitted by Zatko, who is scheduled to give a deposition on September 9th.

A second termination letter from Musk’s lawyers to Twitter that was delivered yesterday and filed with the SEC lays out the reasoning for the delay. According to Musk’s lawyers, the evidence provided by Zatko is more reasons, in addition to the claims laid out in the original termination letter he sent on July 8th, to determine that Twitter is the one in breach of their buyout agreement.

Delaware Court of Chancery Judge Kathaleen McCormick has not yet entered a ruling on the request or proposed a new schedule.