Elon Musk’s legal team is asking Twitter to release the names of employees responsible for calculating the percentage of users on the social media site who are bot and spam accounts, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Twitter bot and spam accounts have become a central issue in the legal fight over whether Musk, who is Tesla’s chief executive, should complete his $44 billion acquisition of the social media company.
Musk said last month he was terminating the deal because Twitter withheld information about those accounts. Twitter sued Musk to complete the deal and said the issue had no bearing on the deal with Musk.
A trial on October 17 is scheduled in Delaware.
In a letter filed under seal on Tuesday, Musk’s attorneys asked the judge handling the case to compel Twitter to turn over the names of the employees so the defense team can question them, the source said.
Bloomberg first reported the request from Musk’s attorneys.
A lawyer for Musk declined to comment. Twitter did not immediately respond to request for comment.