- A whistleblower said he destroyed notebooks and computer files at Twitter's request, per a court filing.
- Elon Musk requested sanctions against Twitter on October 3, alleging it destroyed evidence.
Elon Musk accused Twitter of ordering whistleblower Peiter Zatko to destroy evidence, according to a court filing that was made public on Monday.
The court letter was initially filed on October 3 — the day before Musk said he would purchase Twitter at its original price after months of trying to back out of the $44 billion acquisition. The letter asks the Delaware judge overseeing the lawsuit between the billionaire and social media company to sanction Twitter over the accusations it forced Zatko to destroy evidence of its alleged malpractice.
The filing said that Twitter's former security chief, Zatko, testified he burned 10 handwritten notebooks and deleted 100 computer files after the company instructed him to "destroy all documents in his possession containing 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 ordinary severance agreements requiring an employee to simply 'return' such documents."
Zatko's notes included details from meetings with executives, as well as communications with Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal regarding his concerns over Twitter's security practices, per the court filing.
A Twitter spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment from Insider ahead of 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 spam accounts on its site, and having poor security practices that could violate a previous FTC settlement agreement.
At the time, a Twitter spokesperson told Insider the allegations are "riddled with inaccuracies" and that Zatko was fired for "ineffective leadership and poor performance."
After Zatko's whistleblower complaint became widely reported in August, Musk amended his countersuit against Twitter to include the former security chief's allegations.
The lawsuit is currently on hold after Delaware Court of Chancery Judge Kathaleen St. J. McCormick gave Musk and Twitter an October 28 deadline to complete the deal on their own.