The judge in charge of litigation between Twitter and Elon Musk said Wednesday that the trial was still scheduled for October 17 as long as the social network and the boss of Tesla have not officially requested a stay of proceedings.
Elon Musk wrote to Twitter on Monday offering to buy the company as originally planned, for $44 billion, as long as the board ends his lawsuit and he gets the necessary funds.
But at this stage, "
the parties have not requested that the proceedings be discontinued
," Judge Kathaleen McCormick said in a letter to lawyers on Wednesday.
"
I am therefore continuing with the preparations for the trial
," she added.
Twitter filed a complaint against Elon Musk in early July, to force him to honor his commitment made two months earlier.
The multi-billionaire had just announced that he was ending it, assuring that Twitter had lied to him on certain subjects, in particular the proportion of fake accounts on the platform, which the company denies.
Elon Musk is supposed to be questioned, this Thursday, behind closed doors by the lawyers of the social network.
They asked for sanctions against the contractor, whom they accuse of not having provided all the necessary information, in particular messages sent via the Signal application, known for respecting confidentiality.
"
I am forced to conclude that it is probable
" that those in charge of preserving the messages related to the case "
allowed the automatic deletion of communications on Signal (...) and that they were therefore irretrievably lost
”, notes the judge.
She demands that the Tesla boss's lawyers provide certain missing exchanges but reserves her decision on possible sanctions.
Read alsoTwitter: Elon Musk ready to do anything to avoid a trial
Elon Musk had offered in the spring to acquire the platform for 54.20 dollars per share, thus valuing it at 44 billion dollars.
The board of directors, very reluctant at first, ended up accepting.
Before Tuesday, everything indicated that Twitter was on track to win in court against the tempestuous businessman.