Twitter’s ex-CEO sues company after legal turmoil

theguardian.com:

Former Twitter executives, including ex-CEO Parag Agrawal, are suing the social media company over legal fees incurred in a recent storm of legal battles.

Agrawal is joined in the suit by the company’s former chief legal officer Vijaya Gadde and former chief financial officer Ned Segal. They allege they have spent more than $1m out of pocket on legal fees related to shareholder lawsuits and government investigations.

“Plaintiffs have incurred significant expenses, including but not limited to attorneys’ fees and costs, in connection with several proceedings in which plaintiffs are involved by virtue of their former roles as officers of Twitter, and plaintiffs accordingly are entitled to advancement of those fees and costs,” the lawsuit said.

All three executives were terminated from the company when billionaire Elon Musk took over in October 2022 and implemented a chaotic flurry of cost-saving measures, cutting the staff from 7,500 to about 2,000 employees as of December.

The suit, filed in Delaware chancery court, cites legal expenses related to a 2022 inquiry by the US Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) for which Agrawal and Segal provided testimony.

Gadde was named as a defendant alongside Twitter in a 2021 lawsuit in which a user alleged he was “doxed” on the social media app as a white supremacist. She also had to testify before the US Congress in a hearing on free speech, which came after Musk released the “Twitter Files”, internal documents calling attention to the site’s previous content moderation policies.

The filing also revealed that Twitter is facing an inquiry by the US Department of Justice. It’s unclear what the department is investigating, and whether the inquiry is still under way. The justice