SEC Must Release Recording of Musk Interview With Investigators

The US Securities and Exchange Commission was ordered to release the recording of a 2018 interview between Elon Musk and investigators during the agency’s probe into the Tesla CEO and his tweets.

The agency failed to identify a “substantial privacy interest that would be actually impeded by releasing the recording,” Judge Tanya S. Chutkan of the US District Court for the District of Columbia said Monday.

Since the SEC already disclosed the substance of the interview when it released a 281-page redacted transcript and brought a “highly public” enforcement action against Musk for alleged securities fraud, the judge said, the usual reasons to withhold law enforcement records don’t hold weight here. Musk also publicly spoke about the investigation after he settled with the SEC for $20 million.

“The cat is out of the bag,” Chutkan wrote.

Although individuals generally have a substantial privacy interest in their voice and likeness, “Musk’s image, voice, and mannerisms are far more public than that of a private individual who has not held press conferences in the Oval Office and Cabinet Room or gone on national television,” the judge said.

The agency also never indicated that Musk became emotional or distressed during questioning, or that the recording “reveals anything different from what is already well known” about Musk’s mannerisms and voice, Chutkan said.

The SEC must release the recording within 60 days, but can withhold portions redacted in the released transcript or showing any person other than Musk.

Jigsaw Productions Inc. sued the SEC under the Freedom of Information Act in 2024 after the agency refused to share more than the redacted transcript. Jigsaw is a documentary production company making a film on Musk.

Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press represents Jigsaw.

The case is Jigsaw Prods. LLC v. SEC, D.D.C., No. 1:24-cv-02358, 3/23/26.