Elon Musk Claims Twitter Has a 'Scheme to Mislead' as Company Slams His Alleged 'Excuses' in Court Filing

Elon Musk attends TIME Person of the Year on December 13, 2021 in New York City.
Elon Musk attends TIME Person of the Year on December 13, 2021 in New York City.
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Theo Wargo/Getty Elon Musk

Elon Musk is accusing Twitter of misleading him about its business following a deal to buy the social media platform for $44 billion — claims which Twitter denied in a court filing.

In court documents filed on Thursday and shared online by Twitter Chairman Bret Taylor, the company responded to Musk's counterclaims, which were filed confidentially last week and unsealed on Thursday, according to the Associated Press. Musk's public countersuit was also shared online by Vox.

"Twitter filed a response to Mr. Musk's counterclaims. His claims are factually inaccurate, legally insufficient, and commercially irrelevant," Taylor wrote in a statement. "We look forward to the trial in the Delaware Court of Chancery."

In Twitter's reply, which included several portions from Musk's counterclaims, the company responded to allegations that they held back information to prevent his team from uncovering "fraud" after the April agreement.

"[Twitter] has dragged its feet in responding to the Musk Parties' data requests and has repeatedly provided sanitized, incomplete information that it admits does not answer the Musk Parties' most basic questions," read the allegation, which was denied by Twitter in the filing.

PEOPLE has reached out to Musk's representation for comment. When reached by PEOPLE, Twitter said they had no additional comment beyond Taylor's statement.

RELATED: Twitter Sues Elon Musk to Prevent Him from Backing Out of Buyout Deal, Slams Billionaire's Behavior

"Twitter was miscounting the number of false and spam accounts on its platform, as part of its scheme to mislead investors about the company's prospects," Musk's team wrote, according to the filings. "Twitter's disclosures have slowly unraveled, with Twitter frantically closing the gates on information in a desperate bid to prevent the Musk parties from uncovering its fraud."

In the reply to Musk's counterclaims, the company called his criticisms "factually inaccurate, legally insufficient, and commercially irrelevant."

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twitter

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The claims are the latest developments in a clash between the two sides. Musk, who has previously claimed Twitter had more false accounts than they let on, filed to terminate the deal in July, for which the company is now suing him in a Delaware court to complete the deal

The company argued in their court filing that Musk did not ask for "any representations" regarding false or spam accounts on the network when he offered to buy the platform, nor did they provide a number. They also claimed Musk did not attempt to verify the number of fake accounts before he agreed to the merger.

The San Francisco-based company went on to allege that Musk's counterclaims are an "entirely new set of excuses."

RELATED: Elon Musk Responds to Twitter's Plan to Sue Him Over Terminated Deal to Buy Social Media Platform

"Musk invents representations Twitter never made and then tries to wield, selectively, the extensive confidential data Twitter provided him to conjure a breach of those purported representations," Twitter's attorneys argued in the documents. "Yet Musk simultaneously and incoherently asserts that Twitter breached the merger agreement by stonewalling his information requests."

Despite the lawsuit, Musk has continued to use the platform to reach his nearly 103 million followers.

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In its countersuit reply, Twitter described Musk's reasoning for withdrawing from their deal as a "story, imagined in an effort to escape a merger agreement that Musk no longer found attractive," according to the court filing.

"The result is a distortion that Musk is hoping will nonetheless make waves," the company claimed in the documents.

According to the Washington Post, the trial between Musk and Twitter will begin on October 17 and last five days.