Elon Musk’s top attorney, Alex Spiro, took the stand as a witness Tuesday for a few minutes, after Judge Charles R. Breyer significantly limited what Spiro could say to the jury in a trial over Musk’s turbulent 2022 Twitter acquisition.
The celebrity lawyer of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP has a long record of defending the billionaire tech mogul in cases around the country, including when Twitter sued Musk in Delaware to force him to follow through on his $44 billion purchase agreement. Musk’s statements during that period are under fire from investors who say they lost money because things Musk said on Twitter moved the stock price.
“There is no question he is the most important witness in this case,” Breyer told attorneys for Musk and the investors while the jury was outside the courtroom. But Musk has asserted attorney-client privilege so Spiro’s “most important testimony” can’t be produced, Breyer said.
Attorneys for investors suing Musk fought for months to disqualify Spiro as Musk’s attorney because they argued he was a key witness at the heart of the case who had first-hand knowledge of Musk’s acquisition. Breyer, a trial judge for the US District Court for the Northern District of California, ultimately rejected their arguments and allowed Spiro to serve as both as Musk’s attorney and a witness.
But the judge throughout the trial has expressed concerns about witnesses veering too far into testimony implicating attorney-client privilege, which he has ruled is off limits in the case.
Source: Musk’s Go-To Attorney Has Testimony Limited in Twitter Trial