Tesla CEO Elon Musk is accusing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of attempting to “weaponize” an investigation into his company, CNN reported.
Musk alleged that an SEC staffer illegally leaked information about the investigation and that the agency is misusing a consent degree he and Tesla agreed to.
Musk’s claim was made in a court filing but it did not go into details of the alleged leak or name the staffer it blamed for the leak. It also did not mention where the information was reported.
The reporting on the investigation has relied mainly on court filings available to the public.
The legal claim from Musk’s lawyers detailed a letter it sent to the SEC’s Inspector General asking for a probe into the agency’s handling of its investigation of Tesla and Musk.
Musk has been at odds with the SEC for a long time, once tweeting that SEC stands for “Shortseller Enrichment Commission.”
Last week, Musk’s legal team told US Judge Alison Nathan of the Southern District of New York that their client was being singled out by the SEC because he "remains an outspoken critic of the government” and that the agency’s continued investigations into his public statements is part of an "outsized effort" to "chill his exercise of First Amendment rights."
On Friday, the SEC told Nathan that it was acting within its legal capacity as an oversight agency. The SEC’s statement drew the latest response from Musk’s lawyers alleging he was being unfairly targeted.