Elon Musk has filed a new request to terminate the Twitter acquisition deal

Elon Musk’s legal team filed a new request today to end the deal to acquire Twitter for $44 billion, citing additional reasons.

This development comes in the wake of a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission by Peter Zatko, Twitter’s former security chief, who claimed that the popular social networking platform faced “appalling weaknesses in privacy, security and content moderation”.

Elon Musk has since subpoenaed the whistleblower, requesting documents and communications related to the weaknesses, court filings revealed yesterday.

The new request to end the deal to acquire Twitter from the Tesla strongman was made on the basis of the allegations made by Zatko.

“Allegations regarding certain facts, known to Twitter prior to July 8, 2022, but unknown to the Musk side prior to that time, have since come to light and provide additional and clear grounds for termination of the Merger Agreement,” a legal representative wrote. Musk’s Mark Rigler in a letter to Twitter’s chief legal officer.

Rigler notes that the new notice of termination of the agreement “was not legally necessary” to terminate it, but is delivered in the event that the July 8 proposal “is found to be invalid for any reason.”

The letter said Zatko’s allegations “suggest widespread misconduct at Twitter — which had been disclosed to Twitter directors and senior executives, including (CEO) Parag Agrawal — that is likely to have serious consequences for Twitter’s operations.”

Peter Zatko is a famous hacker known by the nickname “Mudge,” and he ended his tenure as Twitter’s chief security officer earlier this year. He said in a related statement made public last week that the company falsely claimed that it had an organized security plan.

For Twitter’s part, a lawyer for the company said in a court hearing last week that Musk’s attention to fictitious accounts in ending the acquisition deal is “legally irrelevant” as Twitter has always said reporting fictitious accounts it is based only on estimates and not on a data presentation that initiates commitments.

Both sides have filed lawsuits on both sides, and are headed to a five-day trial on October 17. Musk wants out of the deal, and Twitter is asking Delaware District Court President Kathleen McCormick to order Musk to buy the company for the agreed price of $54.20 per share.