Musk Loses Bid to Overturn Twitter Fraud Verdict

A US federal judge has rejected Elon Musk’s attempt to overturn a jury verdict that found he defrauded Twitter investors during his 2022 acquisition of the social media company, while ruling that he was not liable for one of the disputed tweets.

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Judge Upholds Jury's Decision

US District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco on Monday denied Musk’s request to dismiss the jury’s March verdict, rejected his bid to decertify the investor class, and granted the plaintiffs’ request for prejudgment interest.

Lawyers representing Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Tweets at the Centre of the Case

A jury found on 20 March that Musk sought to depress Twitter’s share price in an effort to renegotiate or withdraw from his $44 billion takeover of the company in 2022.

The case centred on tweets posted by Musk on 13 and 17 May 2022, in which he questioned whether Twitter had significantly more fake and spam accounts, commonly known as bots, than the company had disclosed.

One Tweet Upheld, One Dismissed

Breyer said there was "substantial evidence of falsity" in Musk’s 13 May tweet, finding that it caused Twitter’s share price to fall sharply and supported the jury’s verdict.

However, the judge ruled that Musk was not liable for the 17 May tweet because there was no meaningful market reaction following that post.

Following the March verdict, a lawyer representing the investors estimated that potential damages could amount to about $2.5 billion.

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Adapted by ASEAN Now. Source 8 July 2026