Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk compared himself to rapper Eminem on Tuesday as he seeks to overturn his 2018 deal with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). SEC) settlement agreement. The agreement requires Musk to obtain pre-approval from a lawyer before tweeting.
Musk also renewed his efforts to quash the SEC subpoena in documents filed in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday. The subpoena asked Musk to provide details about whether he and Tesla complied with the disclosure requirements of the 2018 consent order.
The SEC is investigating Musk’s Nov. 6, 2021, Twitter asking his followers whether they should sell their 10% Tesla holdings to pay the tax bill for stock options. Since then, he has sold about $16.4 billion of his Tesla holdings.
In Tuesday’s filing, Musk said that asking Tesla’s lawyers to review some of his tweets was unconstitutional, preemptive, and a violation of the First Amendment. “(SEC) is going to block me, don’t let me be me, then let’s see, they want to erase me,” Musk said, citing Eminem’s song “Without Me.”