Musk, Twitter Spar Over Whistle-Blower as Deal Feud Escalates

Lawyers for Elon Musk and Twitter Inc. are sparring over how a whistle-blower’s accusations could affect the outcome of Musk’s proposed $44 billion takeover of the social media platform.

In a securities filing on Tuesday, lawyers for Musk said the allegations by Peiter Zatko, Twitter’s ex-head of security, including claims of “egregious deficiencies” in the platform’s defenses against hackers and privacy issues, meant that Twitter had breached the terms of the merger agreement.

Shortly after, Twitter’s lawyers responded with their own filing, saying Musk’s case for termination of the deal is “invalid and wrongful.”

Musk has been attempting ...