White House Says Reports of National Security Reviews on Elon Musk Are ‘Not True’ — Tesla CEO Prepares to Close Twitter Deal Friday

The White House has clarified that the Biden Administration is not discussing subjecting Elon Musk’s ventures to national security reviews. The Tesla CEO is reportedly preparing to close the $44 billion Twitter buyout deal by Friday to avoid a court trial.

The White House has reportedly clarified that reports of national security reviews of some of Elon Musk’s ventures are not true.

While declining to comment on the Biden administration’s relationship with the Tesla boss or his companies, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre confirmed:

Those reportings are not true … The national security review — that is not true.

Last week, Bloomberg reported that U.S. officials were weighing what tools were available to allow the government to subject Musk’s ventures, including Spacex’s Starlink satellite network and Musk’s $44 billion Twitter acquisition deal, to national security reviews.

Recently, the Tesla chief said Spacex will keep funding Ukraine for free even though Starlink is losing money. His statement followed a letter Spacex sent to the Pentagon stating that the company is not “in a position to further donate terminals to Ukraine, or fund the existing terminals for an indefinite period of time.”

The Tesla CEO reportedly plans to close the Twitter buyout deal by Friday. Citing a person familiar with the matter, Reuters reported Tuesday that Musk has also informed co-investors who committed to funding his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter of his plan.

In a May filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Musk said he received equity commitment letters from a number of investors “providing for an aggregate of approximately $7.139 billion.” They include cryptocurrency exchange Binance, Sequoia Capital, and Fidelity Management and Research Co. In addition, banks, including Morgan Stanley and Bank of America Corp. have committed to providing $13 billion of debt financing to support the deal, the news outlet conveyed.

Musk agreed to buy Twitter in April for about $44 billion. However, he subsequently tried to back out of the deal, accusing Twitter of a material breach of the agreement. He officially terminated his offer to buy the social media platform in July. Twitter subsequently sued to force him to close the deal. Musk countersued Twitter.

However, last week Musk said he would purchase Twitter at the agreed-upon price of $54.20 a share. The Delaware Court of Chancery has given the billionaire until Oct. 28 to close the deal with Twitter to avoid a trial. Musk said that the purchase of Twitter will accelerate the creation of “X, the everything app.”

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