Twitter says Elon Musk is using maternity tactics to delay trial

Twitter is urging a Delaware court to grant its request for an expedited trial of Elon Musk’s rejected $44 billion deal to buy the company — arguing that the billionaire’s attempts to wind up proceedings to be just a stable tactic.

In a court filing on Monday, Twitter argued that Musk’s “proposed schedule,” which seeks to postpone a trial until next spring, was a “tactical delay” calculated to complicate and obscure.

The social media company, which instead wants the trial to take place more quickly in September, said it was “necessary” for the court to grant its request before the “earliest possible trial date”.

“This very public dispute hurts Twitter every day that Musk is in violation,” Twitter’s lawyers said on the file. “Musk amplifies this damage by using the company’s own platform like a megaphone to belittle it.”

“As set forth in the complaint, Musk is using his consent rights to vet the company’s operations, and the overhang of his infringement jeopardizes Twitter’s relationships with employees and customers,” the filing added.

The Delaware Chancery Court will hold a hearing Tuesday morning on Twitter’s request for an expedited trial. Twitter is trying to force Musk to comply with the merger agreement via a court order.

Musk’s lawyers have requested that the trial begin no earlier than February 13 of next year — claiming the billionaire’s camp will need additional time to investigate concerns about the number of spam bots within Twitter’s user base.

The Tesla CEO cited the bot’s issue as a key factor in his decision to pull out of a deal to buy Twitter. Meanwhile, Twitter has argued that fake accounts make up less than 5% of its user base.

Twitter’s filing also dismissed Musk’s concerns about spambots as a “contractually irrelevant sideshow that Musk wants to use to discredit Twitter and extend this lawsuit.”

Twitter noted that Delaware Chancery Court has “showed that merger enforcement disputes can be litigated within sixty to seventy-five days.”

The Wall Street Journal earlier notice about the declaration.

As The Post exclusively reported Monday night, Musk’s team plans to file a counter-suit against Twitter. A lengthy legal battle could put more pressure on Twitter’s shares, which have fallen steadily amid a broader market downturn in recent months.

Kathaleen McCormick, the chief justice of the Delaware Chancery Court, presides over the legal battle between Twitter and Musk. She stands out for being one of the few judges to have ordered a company to enter into a merger agreement that they were trying to terminate.

.