Elon Musk claps back at Twitter’s lawsuit over $44 billion deal

Elon Musk accused Twitter on Friday of deceiving him about its service, obfuscating facts and not notifying him of executive changes, in his first formal response to the company’s lawsuit aimed at forcing him to complete a $44 billion acquisition of the social media service.

Lawyers for Musk, who struck the blockbuster deal to buy Twitter in April but has since tried to terminate the purchase, made the arguments in a legal filing intended to oppose the company’s demand for a four-day trial in September in the case.

Twitter was rushing to court after “a two-month treasure hunt of delays, technical bottlenecks, evasive answers, and, ultimately, refusals,” Musk’s lawyers said in the filing.