The Judge supervising the bench trial between Elon Musk and Twitter, Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick, said the trial is still ongoing.
McCormick said she has not received a stay from both parties as of October 5, 2022, following Musk’s decision to buy the social media platform after months of the legal fray.
Telsa CEO had in his recent decision said he will buy the company at the agreed $44 billion price in April, rescinding his previous stand to opt out of the deal — a decision that haunted Twitter.
Although the new decision of Musk to continue with the deal delighted Twitter’s CEO, Parag Agrawal, who described it as a ‘win’ and neither Musk nor Twitter has withdrawn its subpoena.
Since Twitter nor Musk as filed a stay, McCormick said, “I, therefore, continue to press on toward our trial set to begin on October 17, 2022.”
One of the contentious issues in the case is whether Musk has turned over all records in his possession. In particular, Musk’s advocacy for the privacy-focused messaging service Signal has led Twitter’s lawyers to suggest there are messages he should have turned over and didn’t.
McCormick in her letter said she believes Musk did use Signal.
“I am forced to conclude that it is likely defendant’s custodians permitted the automatic deletion of responsive signal communications between them and possibly others and that those communications are irretrievably lost,” she wrote.
Twitter has requested sanctions against Musk, but McCormick hasn’t decided on whether she’ll sanction him yet.
Musk had filed a letter with the Securities and Exchange Commission saying that actually, he’ll complete the deal he initially negotiated — as long as Twitter drops its suit.