- A whistleblower said he destroyed notebooks and computer files at Twitter’s request, according to a court filing.
- Elon Musk sought sanctions against Twitter on October 3, claiming it destroyed evidence.
- The document was made public on Monday, but was filed a day before Musk made a U-turn on the acquisition.
Elon Musk accused Twitter of ordering whistleblower Peiter Zatko to destroy evidence, according to a court filing made public Monday.
The court letter was originally filed on Oct. 3 — a day before Musk said he would buy Twitter at its original price after months of trying to walk away from the $44 billion purchase. The letter asks the Delaware judge overseeing the lawsuit between the billionaire and the social media company to sanction Twitter over allegations it forced Zatko to destroy evidence of his alleged misconduct.
The filing said Twitter’s former security chief, Zatko, testified that he burned 10 handwritten notebooks and deleted 100 computer files after the company instructed him to “destroy all documents in his possession that contained Twitter information.” “. Musk’s legal team argued that the alleged instructions, which were tied to Zatko’s $7 million severance package, “differed from Twitter’s usual severance agreements that required an employee to simply ‘return’ such documents.” .
Zatko’s notes included details of meetings with executives as well as communications with Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal about his concerns about Twitter’s security practices, according to the court filing.
A Twitter spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment from Insider before publication.
Musk’s legal team said Zatko destroyed the documents the day after he filed his whistleblower complaint on July 6, making it more difficult for the whistleblower to “share corroborating evidence.” In his 84-page complaint, published by The Washington Post, he accused the company of general mismanagement, “lying” to Elon Musk about spammy accounts on its site and lax security practices that could violate an agreement to prior to the FTC settlement.
At the time, a Twitter spokesperson told Insider that the allegations are “riddled with inaccuracies” and that Zatko was fired for “ineffective leadership and poor performance.”
After Zatko’s whistleblower complaint was widely reported in August, Musk amended his counterclaim against Twitter to include the former security chief’s allegations.
The lawsuit is currently pending after Delaware Court of Chancery Judge Kathaleen St. J. McCormick gave Musk and Twitter a deadline of October 28 to complete the deal on their own.
