Elon Musk seeks to delay Twitter trial citing whistleblower's testimony

San Francisco, Aug 31 Tesla CEO Elon Musk is trying to buy more time from the court to kick off the Twitter trial, set for October 17, citing the upcoming testimony by whistleblower Peiter "Mudge" Zatko.

Musk's legal team has proposed a new timeline that would push the week-long trial to late November.

"Delaware Court of Chancery Judge Kathaleen McCormick has not yet entered a ruling on the request or proposed a new schedule," The Verge reported late on Tuesday.

Zatko is set to testify at US Congress on September 13 about allegations he leveled against the Parag Agrawal-led micro-blogging platform.

The former Twitter security head alleged that Twitter misled regulators about its security practices and actual number of bot accounts.

Zatko also received a subpoena from Musk's legal team to appear for a deposition on September 9 in the ongoing lawsuit between Twitter and Musk.

Musk has said that the testimony of Twitter whistleblower justifies his termination of the $44 billion deal to buy the micro-blogging platform.

In a new termination letter filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Musk's legal team said that Zatko's allegations, if true, "demonstrate that Twitter has breached the following provisions of the Merger Agreement, thereby giving the Musk Parties the right to terminate the Merger Agreement pursuant to its terms".

Musk has to prove to the court that Twitter violated some aspect of the merger agreement, else he will have to shell out a $1 billion fine for cancelling the deal.

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