Judge denies Elon Musk’s attempt to delay Twitter trial

Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images

The Delaware court denied Musk's attempt to push back the trial, but it agreed that he could include claims made by Peiter "Mudge" Zatko.

Yesterday, Musk's attorneys argued for a few weeks to review new information before the trial starts. Musk was accused of trying to drag out the trial and "sow chaos" with more document requests by the company.

New documents related to Zatko's allegations, which include a variety of claims about poor management at Twitter as well as assertions that executives lied about the number of bots on the platform, will be part of the negotiations. Alex Spiro praised the decision. Spiro is hopeful that the motion to amend will lead to the truth coming out in that courtroom.

He said that a delay in the trial would hurt the company. The company was forced to manage under the constraints of the repudiated merger agreement. I am not convinced that a four-week delay would be worth it.

The decision to allow the whistle blower's claims strengthens Musk's case despite the fact that it isn't necessarily fatal toTwitter. Musk initially said he suspended the deal because he discovered a far larger number of bots on the platform than he expected, but at the trial, he is likely to argue that the company concealed material adverse effects, thanks to Zatko's disclosures.

It has been argued that Musk got cold feet because he didn't want to be associated with bots. At the hearing, it pointed to a text message that urged his bankers to slow down the deal for a few days while they looked at Putin's speech. If we are headed into World War 3, it won't make sense to buy a social networking site. Thanks to today's decision, we won't have to wait long to see what the two sides have to give us.

The statement was added by Musk's lawyer.