- Elon Musk confidentially filed a countersuit against Twitter late last week.
- Musk makes several claims against Twitter, including about the soundness of its user metrics
- Musk claims that Twitter is attempting to "distract" from its many "misrepresentations."
Elon Musk confidentially filed a 164-page countersuit against Twitter late last week, escalating the ongoing legal fight over his attempt to back out of the $44 billion purchase.
Musk is scheduled to face off with Twitter in Delaware court over its lawsuit in October. Twitter said it plans to force Musk to buy the company at full price. Now, Musk's recent countersuit is full of accusations around the validity of the social media company's business claims, according to a copy obtained by Insider.
Musk took aim at Twitter's assurances to investors that its business was sound, based on its disclosures of user metrics in securities filings. For months now, Musk has argued publicly that Twitter had more "bots" or spam accounts than it admitted. He used this as the basis last month for backing out of the acquisition.
Twitter's subsequent lawsuit to enforce the merger agreement is "filled with personal attacks against Musk and gaudy rhetoric more directed at a media audience than this court" and "is nothing more than an attempt to distract from these misrepresentations," Musk's counterclaims said.
"That has been Twitter's strategy all along: to distract from and obfuscate the truth about its disclosures—first from its investors and then from the Musk Parties when they began to discern the truth," the claims continue.
Musk's counterclaims were initially not available to the public because the suit allegedly contained private company information that needed to be redacted. After days of back and forth between lawyers on each side, the judge overseeing the case in Delaware Chancery Court said the suit needed to be made public by Friday.
Last month, Twitter appeared to win its first battle against Musk when Chancery Court judge Kathaleen St. Jude McCormick agreed to an expedited five-day trial.
Musk faces an uphill battle in his efforts to back out of the deal due to the ironclad contract he signed earlier this year, multiple experts previously told Insider.
This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates.
