Perkins Coie, the law firm accused of corruption by Twitter CEO Elon Musk, has formally ended its involvement in the social media platform’s case. Lawyers from the Seattle-based firm told a federal judge in California on Friday that another firm, Willkie, Farr & Gallagher, will take over representation of Twitter and its former CEO Jack Dorsey in the civil RICO lawsuit filed by a far-right activist who was previously banned from the platform. In recent court appearances, lawyers from Perkins Coie had represented Twitter despite Musk’s disparagement of the law firm, including calling it “white-shoe lawyers” who “thrive on corruption.”
Musk’s criticism of Perkins Coie centered around a former lawyer, Michael Sussmann, who advised Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign while at the firm. In a tweet last December, Musk cited Sussmann and accused Perkins Coie of attempting to corrupt a presidential election. Sussmann was acquitted in May of federal charges that he falsely told the FBI he was not working on Clinton’s behalf when he gave the agency purported evidence of cyber links between the Trump Organization and a Russia-based bank.
Musk had previously mentioned that hiring Perkins Coie for the California lawsuit was “an error on the part of a member of the Twitter team.” Since acquiring Twitter for $44 billion and taking over as CEO in October, Musk has made significant changes to the company’s legal staff. He fired Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s legal affairs and policy officer, among other in-house changes, and replaced the company’s outside attorneys in several cases.
The California lawsuit, brought by Laura Loomer, claims social media giants, corporations, and the U.S. government conspired to “unlawfully censor conservative voices and interfere with American elections.” Twitter and Dorsey have denied the claims. The social media platform’s legal representation has been in flux since Musk took over, and the hiring of Perkins Coie, despite Musk’s criticism, was just one of several controversial legal moves made by Twitter under his leadership.
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Law firm targeted by Elon Musk ends work on Twitter case