US judge rejects Elon Musk’s bid to overturn Twitter fraud verdict

A federal judge in San Francisco has shut down Elon Musk’s attempt to undo a jury verdict that found him liable for misleading Twitter investors. The ruling keeps Musk on the hook for what could be one of the largest securities fraud damage awards in recent memory.

Judge Charles R. Breyer rejected Musk’s post-trial motions during a June 18 hearing, expressing clear skepticism toward the arguments for overturning or retrying the case. Plaintiffs’ lawyers have estimated damages in the range of $2.5 billion to $2.6 billion, stemming from the impact Musk’s statements had on Twitter’s stock price during the chaotic acquisition saga.

Two tweets, billions in damages

The whole case traces back to May 2022, when Musk fired off two tweets that a jury later determined were materially misleading. In those posts, he claimed the Twitter deal was “on hold” and suggested the transaction required additional financial verification from the company regarding its bot and spam account disclosures.

Musk had already signed a binding agreement to acquire Twitter for $44 billion in April 2022. The deal wasn’t actually on hold in any legally meaningful sense. But those tweets sent Twitter’s stock price tumbling, and shareholders took the hit.

The jury reached its verdict on March 20, 2026, finding Musk liable specifically for those two misleading communications. The jury cleared Musk of broader conspiracy allegations related to investor fraud. The liability finding was narrow but decisive, focused squarely on the false statements themselves.

Musk’s legal team argued that the verdict should be overturned or that a new trial was warranted. Judge Breyer wasn’t persuaded. He affirmed that Musk was clearly liable for making material misrepresentations that moved the market.

The acquisition that became a courtroom saga

Musk announced his intention to buy Twitter in April 2022. Musk publicly questioned Twitter’s disclosures about the number of fake accounts on its platform, using those concerns as leverage to seemingly angle for a renegotiation of the purchase price downward. The “on hold” tweets were part of that pressure campaign.

The deal eventually closed in October 2022 at the originally agreed $44 billion price, after Musk’s attempts to walk away from the transaction led to a separate legal battle in Delaware. But the damage to shareholders who sold their stock during the turbulent period between the tweets and the closing was already done.

Musk’s legal team has signaled they plan to appeal the verdict.

What this means for investors

This case is essentially a roadmap for how securities fraud liability can attach to social media posts. Musk didn’t file a misleading SEC document or issue a fraudulent press release through traditional corporate channels. He tweeted. And a federal jury determined that those tweets constituted material misrepresentations under securities law.

The SEC has long maintained that tweets and other social media posts can constitute regulated communications if they contain material information about public companies. This verdict reinforces that principle with a multi-billion-dollar exclamation point.

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