Twitter Inc CEO Elon Musk said in an email to Reuters on Friday that it was a mistake to hire law firm Perkins Coie to defend the company in a federal lawsuit in California this week. The company will not be stuck again.
Reuters reported earlier that attorneys from Perkins Coie appeared in court for Twitter in the case on Wednesday though musk denounced the company on the social media platform, including in a tweet last month regarding its previous work for former Democratic US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
Musk’s email said the hiring of Perkins Coie was “the fault of a member of the Twitter team.”
“Perkins will not represent Twitter in future cases,” he said.
He did not immediately respond to follow-up questions on Friday, including whether Perkins Coie would continue to advise Twitter on at least six other lawsuits before Musk took ownership. A spokesperson for Perkins Coie did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Musk’s finger pointing comes after months of internal tension over Twitter’s legitimate priorities and personnel since he acquired the company for $44 billion (approximately Rs 3,37,465) and took over the post. CEO in October.
Musk fired Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s legal and policy officer, and other senior employees as he sought to undo what he has criticized as past censorship and partisan bias at the company.
Twitter has also revamped its external legal teams, with attorneys from Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan replacing other firms in some cases.
Musk tweeted on December 8 that Twitter “doesn’t use Perkins Coie” as an outside advisor and called on other companies to boycott the company. He points to a former Perkins Coie attorney, Michael Sussmann, who advised Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign while at the firm.
Sussmann was acquitted in May after denying federal charges that he lied to the FBI that he was not working for Clinton when he purportedly presented evidence to the agency about his links to the FBI. connection between the Trump Organization and a bank based in Russia.
“No company should use them until they amend Sussmann’s attempt to screw up the Presidential election,” Musk wrote in December, referring to Perkins Coie.
In May, Musk tweeted that Perkins Coie and another major law firm are made up of “white shoe lawyers” who “grow on corruption”.
The case that Perkins Coie logged into Twitter this week was made last year by Laura Loomer, a far-right activist who was banned from the site in 2018.
The San Francisco lawsuit claims social media giants, corporations and the US government conspired to “illegally censor conservative voices and interfere in US elections.” Twitter and former CEO Jack Dorsey have denied these claims.
© Thomson Reuters 2023
Stay up to date with the latest from the Gadgets 360 Consumer Electronics Show, at CES 2023 center.
