Musk seeks dismissal of SEC suit over late Twitter stake disclosure

Elon Musk asked a federal judge on Thursday to throw out a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission civil lawsuit that accuses him of failing to timely disclose a large stake in Twitter, now rebranded as X, during 2022. The motion, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., seeks dismissal of the SEC complaint from January and argues the regulator’s case is baseless and politically motivated.

The SEC alleges that Musk crossed the 5 percent ownership threshold in mid-March 2022 and was required by federal rules to file a disclosure within 10 calendar days, which would have made the deadline March 24, 2022. The agency says Musk did not disclose the position until April 4, 2022—11 days late—and during that interval purchased more than $500 million of additional Twitter shares at prices the SEC described as artificially low. The complaint seeks civil fines and disgorgement of profits, alleging investors who sold shares during the period suffered substantial economic harm and that Twitter’s stock jumped roughly 27 percent once his stake became public. The SEC filed the suit on January 14.

Musk’s lawyers countered in Thursday’s filing that the complaint should be dismissed...