A court order issued on Monday requires Twitter Inc. to provide Elon Musk with documents from a former Twitter executive who Musk claimed was crucial in determining how many bogus accounts were present on the network.

Additionally, Musk's attorneys bring up recent Twitter worker reductions and recruitment freezes, arguing that these actions go against the company's duty to carry on as usual.

In the court battle over whether Musk, the CEO of Tesla Inc., must complete his $44 billion takeover of the social media business, bot and spam accounts on Twitter have emerged as a key problem.

Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick of the Delaware Court of Chancery ordered Twitter to gather, examine, and submit records from former General Manager of Consumer Products Kayvon Beykpour.

Musk is the richest man in the world, and neither Twitter nor his attorneys responded to calls for comment almost away.

Musk hinted on Monday that he was preparing for an arduous legal battle by tweeting a four-picture meme of himself laughing, along with the words: "They said I couldn't buy Twitter. Then they wouldn't disclose bot info. Now they want to force me to buy Twitter in court. Now they have to disclose bot info in court".

Beykpour was one of the executives "most intimately involved with" determining the number of spam accounts, according to Musk's court documents. Beykpour left Twitter after the social media business agreed in April to be acquired by Musk. An inquiry for comment made via LinkedIn was not immediately answered by Beykpour.

Musk requested access to 21 additional individuals who had information on pertinent material, but McCormick stated in her decision on Monday that she was rejecting this request. Last week, Musk's legal team sent a letter to McCormick pleading with her to order Twitter to provide the names of its employees so that they might be questioned.

Twitter has refuted Musk's allegations that it misrepresented the number of actual active users on its site when he made them earlier this month. The business claims he broke his promise to buy it, and it wants McCormick to order him to close the sale at $54.20 per share.

The entire saga has perplexed observers, with Wedbush analyst Dan Ives describing it as "one of the craziest business stories ever."

Legal experts claim that Twitter has a solid legal case against Musk, but instead of a protracted legal battle, Twitter might choose to renegotiate or reach a compromise.

On Monday, shares of Twitter finished up 0.5% at $44.50 each.