Elon Musk has claimed that Twitter officials ordered former company executive and whistleblower Peiter “Mudge” Zatko to destroy evidence of the company’s security flaws.
The Tesla chief’s legal team accused Twitter of forcing Zatko to destroy evidence as part of a condition of the $7.8 million severance package he received, a court filing made public Monday revealed.
“Twitter negotiated a unique “severance package” with Mr. Zatko in June 2022, which clearly aimed to ensure the silence of Mr. Zatko and prevent him from coming forward with his whistleblower disclosures,” one of Mr. Musk’s lawyers noted in the court filing.
“In addition to making a much larger severance payment than usual for other former executives, Twitter asked Mr. Zatko agreed, as a condition of payment, to return or destroy all documents in his possession containing Twitter information,” he added.
The lawyer claimed that this instruction to return or destroy the documents “differed from Twitter’s usual disassociation agreements”, adding that it deprived the defendants of critical evidence that could support Mr. Zatko for key meetings and conversations.
Attorneys for the Tesla boss claim the alleged destruction of evidence “relevant to this case” was illegal, based on the Federal Trade Commission’s 2011 Consent Order against Twitter, and have sought a sanction against the media company’s lawyers social.
The claims of Mr. Zatko’s Twitter security issues have been at the center of titan Tesla’s legal battle to back out of its deal to buy the social media company for $44 billion — a decision it reversed last week, offering buying the platform for initially. the agreed price.
But Twitter has said it fired Zatko for his poor performance, adding that his allegations created a “false narrative” about Twitter and its privacy and data security practices.
The social media giant said the allegations by its former security chief are “riddled with inconsistencies and inaccuracies and lack important context”.
Twitter did not immediately respond Independent request for comment.
Last week, Musk offered to complete the deal at the originally agreed price of $44 billion if Twitter agreed to drop all legal proceedings against him, but the social media company rejected the offer.
A Delaware Chancery judge has set a deadline of 5 p.m. ET on October 28 for Musk and Twitter to close the $44 billion deal.
