Judge rejects Musk bid to free tweets from oversight

Twitter’s new client Elon Musk nonetheless ought to have his tweets approximately his electric-powered automobile agency Tesla pre-accepted after a US judge on Wednesday rejected an attraction to lose him from oversight.

Musk final month filed a motion to overturn Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) restrictions imposed following his 2018 tweet, wherein he said he had received investment to take Tesla personal, however, did no longer provide proof or document office work with the securities regulator.

The tweet, which caused proportion fees to range wildly, become dominant to be “fake and deceptive” and shareholders have accused Tesla of securities fraud.

The SEC also charged Musk with fraud and ordered him to step down as chair of Tesla’s board of directors, pay a $20 million fine, and, after another unfortunate tweet in early 2019, demanded his tweets directly related to the business of the company be pre-approved by a competent lawyer.

Musk said he was forced to agree to the deal, and denies lying to shareholders.

However, “Musk’s claim that he was the victim of economic duress is wholly unpersuasive,” Judge Lewis Liman wrote in his ruling.

The judge said Musk’s argument that the SEC has used the agreement “to harass him” and investigate his speech is “meritless” and “particularly ironic,” since free speech rights do not allow him to make statements that are “considered fraudulent” or violate securities laws.

“Musk cannot now seek to retract the agreement he knowingly and willingly entered by simply bemoaning that he felt like he had to agree to it at the time but now — once the specter of the litigation is a distant memory and his company has become, in his estimation, all but invincible — wishes that he had not.”

The decision additionally rejected Musk’s request to quash part of the SEC’s demand for documents about his November 6, 2021 tweet calling for followers to vote on whether he has to sell 10 percent of his Tesla stock.

The tweet sent the employer’s proportion price decrease, and the SEC desires to realize if it becomes permitted as required. The corporation also is investigating feasible insider trading after Musk’s brother — a Tesla board member — bought $108 million inside the carmaker’s inventory an afternoon before the ballot.