SAN FRANCISCO — US District Judge Charles Breyer rejected Elon Musk's bid to void a jury verdict finding that Musk defrauded Twitter investors. The ruling on July 6, 2026, also denied Musk's motion to decertify the class of investors and granted the investors' motion for prejudgment interest.

The jury verdict found that Musk defrauded Twitter investors by trying to drive down the social media company's stock price after agreeing to a $44 billion takeover. Jurors found Musk liable for May 13 and May 17, 2022, tweets in which he questioned whether Twitter was overrun by fake and spam accounts. The May 13, 2022, tweet stated the purchase was "on hold" pending details on whether bots represented less than 5 percent of users. Investors said this tweet caused Twitter's share price to fall 18 percent over two trading days, leading to losses when they sold shares at depressed prices.

Breyer found "substantial evidence of falsity" in the May 13, 2022, tweet. "A jury could conclude that Musk had a motive to get out of the existing deal and used bots as a pretext to do so," Breyer said. The May 17, 2022, tweet indicated that the percentage of bots could be much higher than 20 percent and stated the purchase "cannot move forward" until Twitter's chief executive proved the bot percentage was under 5 percent. Breyer agreed with Musk that the lack of market reaction to the May 17, 2022, tweet meant it did not cause investors to lose money, and found Musk not liable for one of his challenged tweets.

Mark Molumphy, a lawyer for the investors, labeled July 6, 2026, "a very good day" for investors in public markets. Molumphy stated that jurors "rejected Musk's effort to game that system." He had estimated following the March 20 verdict that damages could total about $2.6 billion.

Breyer rejected Musk's claim that jurors were mocking him by highlighting the figure "$4.20" in bright blue on the verdict form. He said it "defies common sense" that jurors were biased against Musk, noting that jurors deliberated over nearly four days and sided with Musk on some claims. "Even if the speaker has a change of heart or a momentary regret about a transaction, such qualms do not justify lying to the investing public," Breyer wrote. The judge found no evidence that 420 was negatively associated with Musk. "To the contrary, 420 is a reference to cannabis/marijuana," he wrote. "One need only walk around San Francisco on April 20 to observe how prevalent the celebration can be."