Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has been ordered to testify for a third time in the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) investigation into his $44 billion purchase of Twitter, now known as X, in 2022. The order was issued by US Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler, who gave Musk, his legal team, and the SEC a week to agree on a date and location for his testimony.

The court hearing last December saw Judge Beeler warning that she would issue an order if the two sides couldn't agree on when and where Musk would testify. In her order, Judge Beeler stated that Musk initially agreed to a date but ultimately did not appear, resisting the subpoena on the grounds that the SEC's investigation is baseless and harassing, and seeks irrelevant information. Musk also argued that the subpoena exceeded the SEC's authority since it was not issued by an officer appointed by the President, a court, or the head of a department, as required by the US Constitution.

Despite Musk's resistance, Judge Beeler affirmed that the court is enforcing the SEC's subpoena, emphasizing that the testimony is not unduly burdensome for Musk. The SEC had offered Musk the option to testify in Texas, where he resides. The agency has been conducting a fact-finding investigation into the period before Musk's Twitter takeover, while the social media company was still publicly traded. The SEC clarified that it has not concluded any federal securities laws were violated.

Musk has already testified twice in the case, but since then, the SEC has received thousands of new documents from various parties, including hundreds of documents from Musk himself. The court order comes after Musk closed his $44 billion agreement to acquire Twitter and take it private in October 2022, following a lengthy legal battle with the company's previous leadership. In April 2022, Musk attempted to back out of the deal, prompting the company to sue him to enforce the acquisition.

Officials in the US are seeking Musk's testimony to determine whether he acted lawfully when filling out paperwork on Twitter stock purchases and whether he told the truth when making statements about the deal. The SEC sued Musk in October to compel his cooperation in the probe of the Twitter takeover. According to the court order, Musk's reluctance to appear stems from his belief that the regulator has leaked information to the media, leading him to view the third subpoena as harassment.

This is not the first time Musk has faced legal challenges and clashes with government agencies. In November of the previous year, he failed in his attempt to prevent the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) from overseeing X's handling of users' private data. Musk criticized the outcome, describing it as a "shameful case of weaponization of a government agency for political purposes and suppression of the truth." In 2018, Musk's infamous tweet stating “Funding secured” as he sought to take Tesla private resulted in regulators accusing him of breaching security laws. Musk subsequently agreed to allow Tesla to oversee his tweets but was later sued again for violating their previous agreement. Neither the SEC nor Musk's lawyer immediately responded to requests for comment on the recent court order.