Elon Musk to face multi-day grilling from Twitter lawyers in deposition

Twitter's lawyers are trying to force him to follow through on his $44 billion purchase of the platform

Billionaire Elon Musk will face multiple days in a deposition with Twitter's lawyers as the company seeks to force him to follow through with his offer to buy the platform.

Musk will answer questions from Twitter's lawyers throughout Monday and Tuesday, with a possible extension to Wednesday. The deposition will help prepare information for Twitter's upcoming trial in the case.

Musk originally offered to purchase Twitter for $54.20 per share earlier this year, vowing to rid the platform of political bias and spam accounts. He later attempted to back out of the deal, however, arguing Twitter had misled him as to how many spam and bot accounts there already were on the platform.

Twitter had claimed that the unwanted accounts made up less than 5% of the platform's population, while Musk argues the true number is far higher.

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Elon Musk in a jacket with a phone displaying the Twitter logo behind him

In this photo illustration, a Twitter logo seen displayed on a smartphone screen.  (Photo Illustration by Sheldon Cooper/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images / Getty Images)

Parag Agrawal Twitter

Parag Agrawal, the CEO of Twitter. ( Twitter | Istock / iStock)

Twitter's shares currently cost $41.58.

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Musk's final legal showdown with Twitter will open October 17. The trial is expected to last just five days. Subpoenas have been issued for former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison and former Intel Corporation CEO Robert Swan.

Musk filed an additional counter-suit against Twitter following allegations from Twitter whistleblower Peiter Zatko, who claims the platform has been misleading the public about its data security.

Zatko worked as the company's security chief until being fired earlier this year.

A former Twitter employee testifies

Twitter whistleblower Peiter Zatko testifies to a Senate Judiciary hearing examining data security at risk, Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2022, in Washington.  (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin / AP Newsroom)

He argues China and India already have extensive access to data on Twitter's users, and there is little the company has done to stop it.

"I am here today because Twitter leadership is misleading the public, lawmakers, regulators and even its own board of directors," Zatko said in his opening remarks.

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"They don’t know what data they have, where it lives and where it came from and so, unsurprisingly, they can’t protect it. It doesn’t matter who has keys if there are no locks," he added.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.