After an incident of suspected market manipulation, CEO Elon "Pedo Guy" Musk agreed to let Tesla's lawyers vet some of his Tweets before sharing those pearls of wisdom with the masses. Even as he continues to run afoul of insider trading claims, Musk feels the apparently invisible restraints put on him by the SEC are unfair and amount to chilling his political criticism of the US. Much of that criticism revolves around his unwillingness to pay taxes.
According to lawyer Alex Spiro, the SEC is pursuing the billionaire because he "remains an outspoken critic of the government; the SEC's outsized efforts seem calculated to chill his exercise of First Amendment rights".
At the time of the original settlement in 2018, Tesla and Musk agreed to each pay $20m in civil fines and to let Tesla lawyers vet some of Musk's communications in advance, including tweets that could affect Tesla's stock price.
Elon Musk's lawyers argued the SEC was curtailing his right to free speech
A letter filed to court earlier this year disclosed that the SEC had issued another subpoena to Mr Musk in order to check his compliance with the 2018 agreement.
