Fired Twitter execs are suing Elon Musk for over $128 million

But this time, it’s the same execs who forced Musk to close his $44 billion acquisition in the first place, who are now claiming his goal was to “cheat” them out of $200 million before their stock options vested the next morning. They also have a remarkably thorough source to explain why he closed the deal and fired them when he did: Elon Musk himself, as quoted by Walter Isaacson in the biography released last year, Elon Musk.

“There’s a 200-million differential in the cookie jar between closing tonight and doing it tomorrow morning,” he told me late Thursday afternoon in the war room as the plan unfolded. 

Another passage cited from the book calls out a conversation between Musk and his lawyer, Alex Spiro. “[H]e tried to resign … but we beat him,” they said, specifically referring to Agrawal. By firing Agrawal before he was able to send a resignation letter, they apparently believed it would mean the company wouldn’t have to pay his severance package.

Despite claims made by Elon Musk’s X about negligence, waste, and misconduct, the lawsuit argues it was authorized by the company’s board and necessary to do things like pay $90 million to the lawyers who forced Elon Musk to pay $44 billion for Twitter.