TL;DR
US District Judge Charles Breyer denied Elon Musk’s bid to overturn a March 2026 jury verdict finding he defrauded Twitter investors during his 2022 takeover, upholding the finding on his 13 May bot tweet while granting one narrow point on a 17 May tweet. Investors say damages could reach $2.6bn, and the judge also granted prejudgment interest.
A federal judge has refused to overturn a jury’s finding that Elon Musk defrauded Twitter investors during his $44bn takeover of the platform in 2022. US District Judge Charles Breyer denied Musk’s motion to set aside the verdict in most respects on Monday.
A San Francisco jury ruled in March that two of Musk’s May 2022 tweets about the deal and Twitter’s spam bot numbers were materially false or misleading. Investors say the resulting losses could support damages of up to $2.6bn.
“Buyer’s remorse is not an exception to the securities laws,” Breyer wrote, adding that the laws are “in their essence, about trust”. The judge found substantial evidence that Musk’s 13 May tweet, claiming the deal was on hold pending bot data, was literally untrue.
Breyer cited testimony from one of Musk’s own bankers, who said the tweet surprised her and that Musk never actually put the deal on hold. A jury could infer Musk had a motive to escape the deal and used bots as a pretext, the judge wrote.
He did hand Musk one narrow win, agreeing there was too little evidence that a separate 17 May tweet caused investors a market loss. Musk’s lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The bot pretext, four years on
The case traces back to Musk’s chaotic pursuit of Twitter, when he agreed to buy the company, then tried to walk away citing spam accounts. Twitter sued to force the deal through, and Musk ultimately closed at $54.20 a share before renaming the platform X.
Investors sued in October 2022, arguing Musk deliberately talked the stock down to renegotiate or exit. The jury agreed he misled the market, though it rejected the broader claim that he ran a deliberate scheme.
Breyer also swatted down Musk’s more colourful arguments, including a claim that jurors mocked him by writing “$4.20” in blue ink on the verdict form. The number references cannabis, the judge noted, and the jury had actually cleared Musk on two claims.
Another legal front for a busy defendant
The ruling adds to a crowded docket for Musk, who recently settled a separate SEC case over his late disclosure of an initial Twitter stake for $1.5m. His “funding secured” Tesla saga first drew SEC fraud charges back in 2018.
He is also fighting Sam Altman in a high-stakes trial over OpenAI, all while steering the newly public SpaceX. The tweets that built his mythology keep generating legal bills.
Prejudgment interest, which Breyer also granted, could push the final figure higher still. For a man now worth more than a trillion dollars, the sum is survivable, but the finding that he defrauded investors is harder to shrug off.
