- Musk attorney Alex Spiro received a message in May from someone “looking” for a job.
- The sender was an ex-executive of Twitter. Peiter “Mudge”, Zatko may also have been the sender.
- The judge in charge of Twitter’s case against Musk stated it was “plausible” Zatko was the sender.
The person whose description matches. TwitterWhistleblower Peiter Zatko emailed Elon MuskA few days before the billionaire made the announcement that he was withdrawing from the acquisition, he asked his personal lawyer for a job.
A Wednesday affidavit revealed some contents of the email. Alex SpiroMusk’s long-standing attorney, John Sullivan, has been a part of the troubled $44 billion deal.
According to the affidavit it was sent on May 6th from a ProtonMail account named “Twitter TransitionTeamX”. It offered to support Elon’s Twitter Transition by helping him find a job. It also offered to “communicate via alternate secure means” and said the sender was “a former exec at Twitter leading teams directly involving Trust & Safety/Content Moderation.”
Zatko spent a year as Twitter’s chief information security officer, although he didn’t directly oversee Trust & Safety and Content Moderation. A spokesperson for Whistleblower Aid, the law firm representing Zatko, declined to comment.
Spiro, in a sworn declaration, stated that he didn’t read the email and “didn’t contact the sender of the email by any means whatsoever”
Musk made the announcement on Twitter on May 14th that his purchase of this platform was “on hold” while he gathered more information about its calculations “bots” or “inauthentic accounts”. The deal was renegotiated several times over weeks, with Musk eventually writing a letter to end the agreement at the beginning of July. Now, the deal is in effect Back on.
In June, Zatko filed his first whistleblower complaint. Publicized it in August. Zatko claimed that Twitter had misled Musk regarding the number of fake accounts it hosted.
The affidavit doesn’t include the email or explicitly state that it was sent by Zatko. However, it clearly states that Spiro’s statement regarding the email came as a result. Twitter open for communicationsThis may have happened between Musk and Zatko or his associates prior the whistleblower’s disclosures. The affidavit also describes the absence of contact between Zatko & Spiro. The lawyer claims he didn’t know anything about the whistleblower accusations before they were made public.
In the pre-trial discovery process for the legal battle over the acquisition, Musk’s and Twitter’s legal team were fighting over the email. Just before Musk decided to renew his offer for Twitter at its original price this week, Judge Kathleen McCormick ruled that Musk’s legal team had attempted to exclude the email from discovery. The Verge reported.
Judge McCormick stated in a ruling that “the timing and contents” of the May 6th email make it plausible that Zatko was the writer.
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