Twitter asked whistleblower to destroy computer files, notebooks: Musk team

Twitter's former head of security, whistleblower Peiter Zatko, burnt 10 notebooks and deleted 100 computer files at the behest of the company's managers, a court filing by Elon Musk's legal team has revealed.

The filing in the Delaware Chancery Court in the US, which was unsealed on Monday, revealed that Twitter asked Zatko to destroy evidence before he was asked to leave the company after he received more than $7 million as part of the settlement.

Bloomberg first reported this news, saying the handwritten notebooks "contained notes of the whistleblower's meetings with company counterparts during his year-long tenure as security chief".

"Twitter's attempt to buy Mr. Zatko's silence failed, but Twitter achieved its secondary aim of ensuring Mr. Zatko's corroborating evidence would never come to light," the Tesla CEO's lawyers said in the filing.

Twitter was yet to comment on the fresh allegations by Musk's legal team.

Judge Kathaleen McCormick at the Delaware Chancery Court has granted a stay on the Twitter-Musk trial, which is now on hold till October 28, as both the parties deliberate on how to close the $44 billion takeover deal.

"If the transaction does not close by 5 p.m. on October 28, the parties are instructed to contact me by email that evening to obtain November 2022 trial dates," she ruled.

The stay was granted over the protests of Twitter's lawyers.

Twitter has received a letter from Musk to go ahead with their original deal of $54.20 per share (or $44 billion).

In a new filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Musk's legal team has also asked the court to adjourn the trial and all other proceedings.