Elon Musk will face Twitter’s lawyers in a pre trial deposition on Monday.

Elon Musk will face Twitter’s lawyers in a pre trial deposition on Monday. Along with the recent congressional testimony of the Twitter whistleblower, legal analysts and investors are scratching their heads as to how this case may go. Legal analyst Tracy A. Pearson joined Cheddar News to discuss. "Unless he can prove that there was a material adverse effect of this information on the agreement, it's probably unlikely that he's going to prevail. But you never know.”

Twitter Lawyers to Grill Musk to Make Him Purchase and Stop 'Trashing the Company' 

and joining us now to break down what's in store for the billionaire is Tracy, a Pearson expert, legal analyst, Tracy is so great to have you back on cheddar with us this morning. What do you expect to come out of the musk deposition today? Well good morning Chloe. It's great to be here. I have to say that my, my purpose if I were the twitter lawyers would be to nail down with Elon musk what he knew and when, whether he had had any prior contact with this whistleblower that's come forward and what that whistleblower may have told him and when, because timing is going to matter in this lawsuit, this is the year where you know, non sexy lawsuits have making news defamation at the beginning of the year and now we're talking contract disputes now Tracy, we did talk a little bit broadly about the case but can you give us a little bit more context on what this lawsuit is actually about here to break it down? Really, simply this lawsuit is about twitter trying to compel Elon musk to stop in the words of their their pleading trashing the company and to purchase the company as agreed. Elon musk his countersuit is about trying to not purchase that company or to find that twitter breached the agreement and therefore he doesn't have to purchase the company. Now, you mentioned a whistleblower who came forward recently. How does this actually relate to the lawsuit and how could it actually impact musk's odds here. Well, at the beginning of all of this. People like me thought that Elon musk had about as much chance of winning his lawsuit, his claim to be able to get out of that agreement as tom brady rejoining the patriots. It wasn't gonna happen. However, uh what's the blower did come forward and made allegations serious allegation. The whistleblower's name is Peters Otto, he goes by a name Mudge. And his allegations in several complaints to government agencies are that twitter had lax security protocols that they refused to listen to him and that they had hired foreign agents or spies without even knowing and that the data is not secure. All of this plays into Elon musk's lawsuit. Now with respect to all of that. Uh the federal chair, the FTC chair, lina khan has backtracked on what is a consent agreement that twitter entered into in 2011 for similar reasons. In other words, for breach of security or not protecting taking reasonable steps to not protect user information. She's calling it an a legacy approach. In other words, it doesn't sound like the FTC chair is going to move forward or the FTC is going to move forward to try to say that they breach that committee that agreement. So what does you know, this big, you know, kind of breakthrough here, This whistleblower and his testimony. What does that actually mean for the lawsuit. What could it mean for twitter more broadly, you know, even absent of this ongoing lawsuit. Well, it's not good for them overall. I mean the senators when they heard congressional testimony last week were very concerned. Senate staff was very concerned about the idea that that their data may be at risk, that 50% of about 1,007,000 employees had access to their data and and their private information. So there's a problem that twitter has to fix when it comes to public perception and public perception can play into this lawsuit, whether or not it's going to work is really an issue of the four corners of the contract. What does the contract say? Because Elon musk agreed to purchase this contract based on what is an as is situation in other words, you knew that you had time to go look around and kick the tires and he waived that right? So this contract is one where it doesn't have that agreement and that's really important here. So twitter is looking still in a positive position, even though this whistleblower came forward when it comes to Elon musk's lawsuit, I want to ask here, you know, just after everything that we've talked about after what we've seen so far in this case. What are the odds of musk walking away from this deal? The prediction question? I I gotta tell you, I don't predict outcomes. I I will say that I think that it is possible that that the court could enforce this agreement. But you have to wonder if the practicality of doing that. Do you want to force somebody to buy something that they don't want? And what does that mean for all of the users of twitter? If he doesn't want it, is he gonna shut it down? So again, this is this is contract law, This is this is basic as you get. And it's going to probably be a situation where unless he can prove that there was a material adverse effect of this information on the agreement, it's probably unlikely that he's going to prevail. But you never know. And I always hedge my bets Tracy. Thank you so much for your time today. I'm sure we'll have you back on to discuss this ongoing case. That's Tracy, a Pearson expert, legal analyst.