Elon Musk and Twitter The sparring continued on Monday, as the social media company criticized Tesla The CEO requested a slower trial schedule. Musk is trying to wind down a deal he previously made to buy Twitter and take it private for $54.20 per share, or about $44 billion.

Mask has repeatedly accused Twitter of lying about the number of bot accounts and spam on its platform. Twitter denied the allegations and is lawsuit To force Musk to complete the deal.

Twitter wants to appear for trial as early as September, but Musk has asked a Delaware court to reject her request for an expedited trial and to seek next year. His lawyers argued that Musk needed time to make a great deal of discovery about whether the company had misrepresented the volume of spam and bot accounts on its platform.

In Monday’s filing, Twitter accused Musk of using delay tactics to harm the company in the court of public opinion.

“The earliest possible trial date is imperative,” the company’s lawyers wrote. “This public discord is hurting Twitter with each passing day that Musk is hacked. Musk is amplifying this damage by using the company’s own platform as a megaphone to take it lightly.”

Twitter’s lawyers noted in their filings, “Millions of Twitter posts are circulating daily under a cloud of suspicion created by Musk. No public company of this size and size has ever tolerated this suspicion.”

The chancellor in charge of the case, Catalin St. J. McCormick, parties on Monday that she has COVID-19. Instead of delaying the hearing about the trial schedule, she said they will hold a phone hearing (using Zoom) on Tuesday, July 19.