Federal court demands Musk give testimony in Twitter investigation

A federal judge has demanded that Elon Musk give testimony in an official investigation into his acquisition of the social media platform Twitter.

The judge ordered the Tesla Inc and SpaceX chief executive to testify in a probe by by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding his 2022 acquisition of Twitter, now re-branded as X.

The federal regulator is probing whether Musk or anyone else, committed securities fraud in 2022 as he purchased Twitter stock ahead of his buyout of the firm.

The order comes after the SEC sued Musk for failing to appear for a testimony in September, and refused later to attend a rescheduled interview.

A federal judge in December had ordered Musk to comply with the SEC subpoena and testify again in its probe of his Twitter takeover.

Musk and his legal team reportedly had called the SEC's investigation baseless and that it seeks irrelevant information. They also argued the SEC's subpoena amounted to his harassment.

However, in the latest court filing in California, federal magistrate judge Laurel Beeler wrote that the SEC was within its authority regarding the investigation, and their subpoena was "definite, and seeks relevant information" to their investigation.

According to the court, the subpoena is authorized by the Exchange Act.

The SEC and Musk now have one week to agree on a time and place for his testimony.

It was in October 2022 that Musk closed his acquisition of Twitter in a deal worth roughly $44 billion.

After the initiation of the SEC's probe, Musk had testified twice in half-day sessions in July of 2022 before the regulator.

Since then, the SEC has received thousands of new documents from various parties and reportedly wants to seek information from Musk.