Judge Denies Elon Musk’s Request to Strike Down Settlement with SEC over ‘Funding Secured’ Tesla Tweet

A federal judge has denied Elon Musk’s request to end an agreement with the SEC that requires him to have social media posts about Tesla approved by a company lawyer, popularly referred to as his “Twitter sitter.”

The New York Times reports that a federal judge in New York has denied a request by Elon Musk to end a 2018 agreement he signed with the SEC which requires him to have all social media posts about Tesla approved by a company lawyer.

Musk argued that the agreement infringed on his right to free speech and that the SEC had used the agreement as an excuse to “launch endless, boundless” investigations of his public statements. Musk alleged that he only accepted the settlement in the first place as the litigation would have placed too much financial pressure on Tesla at the time.

Judge Lewis J. Liman of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York wrote in a ruling issued Wednesday that “none of the arguments hold water,” and dismissed Musk’s claims. Judge Liman wrote that Musk’s claims that he agreed to the SEC’s conditions due to financial burden were “wholly unpersuasive” and that Musk was “already a multi-billionaire in 2018 and one of the wealthiest individuals in the world.”

Alex Sprio, a lawyer from the firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, suggested that an appeal of the decision was unlikely, stating: “Nothing will ever change the truth, which is that Elon Musk was considering taking Tesla private and could have — all that’s left some half decade later is remnant litigation which will continue to make that truth clearer and clearer.” He added: “Stay tuned.”

Read more at the New York Times here.

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or contact via secure email at the address lucasnolan@protonmail.com