Twitter claims Musk is under investigation - reports

Twitter wants Musk’s lawyers to hand over certain documents, but his legal team is refusing, claiming "investigative privilege". The social media firm has therefore has asked a judge to order the handover, and made the claim about the alleged probe in the filing, which was released late on Thursday but filed earlier in the month.

It did not explain why the Tesla and SpaceX billionaire was under investigation, however, nor did it say which authorities were carrying it out.

One of Musk’s lawyers, Alex Spiro, told Reuters that the filing was "misdirection", claiming: "It is Twitter’s executives that are under federal investigation." Twitter has not commented on either Spiro’s claim, or the filing.

Musk announced his surprise $44bn bid for Twitter in April after building up a 9% stake. Soon afterwards, however, Musk raised doubts about the amount of fake accounts on the platform, and in July announced he was walking away. In response, Twitter launched legal action to force him to close the deal at the agreed price.

In early October Musk changed tack again and announced that he would now close the deal, in accordance with the original merger agreement, dependent on both the receipt of debt financing and the Delaware Chancery Court adjourning the trial. The two parties had been expected to meet in court on 17 October.