Elon Musk's Tesla And SpaceX Emails Can't Be Accessed Without His Consent, Judge Rules In Twitter-Deal Case

Judge Kathaleen McCormick of the Delaware Chancery Court on Tuesday denied Twitter Inc.’s TWTR request to turn in Elon Musk’s personal emails as evidence in their ongoing litigation that would come up for hearing on Oct. 17.

What Happened: Claiming attorney-client privilege, Musk chose to withhold his personal emails from the Tesla Inc. TSLA and SpaceX servers.

In her ruling, McCormick said, to claim the privilege, Musk must demonstrate that he had an “objectively reasonable expectation of confidentiality” in the two email accounts.

Musk had “unrestricted” personal use of his Tesla and SpaceX email accounts so that no one can access those emails without his express consent, the judge said, citing affidavits submitted by Musk and IT managers from SpaceX and Tesla.

See also: Twitter Shareholders Vote To Approve Buyout By Elon Musk: What Investors Should Know And What's Next

SpaceX and Tesla email policies, however, state that employees have no “privacy interest” in their work emails and the companies reserve the right to monitor those emails, the judge said.

“These additional facts make Musk’s expectation of privacy objectively reasonable. Twitter’s motion is denied.”

Earlier, Twitter argued that Musk had “no reasonable expectation of privacy in his SpaceX and Tesla emails,” while seeking access to those.

McCormick also said the publicly filed versions of Twitter’s motion and Musk’s opposition to disclosing his emails were heavily redacted. She asked both parties to prepare new filings, eliminating redactions, and also instructed Musk and his team to publicly file the four affidavits on which they had relied.

Price Action: Twitter closed Tuesday’s session up 0.80% at $41.74, according to Benzinga Pro data.