Elon Musk under federal investigation over Twitter deal: report

Tesla founder Elon Musk is reportedly under federal investigation in relation to his prospective purchase of social media giant Twitter, lawyers for the platform say.

Filings from Twitter's legal team revealed the investigation and were first reported by Bloomberg. "Elon Musk is presently under investigation by federal authorities for his conduct in connection with the acquisition of Twitter," Twitter's team states.

The exact nature of the investigation remains unclear but the Securities and Exchange Commission previously investigated his delayed disclosure of an initial purchase of shares in the social media platform.

Musk announced in late April that he had negotiated a deal to purchase Twitter for $44 billion, which prompted a bevy of conservative praise for the billionaire given his promises to curtail the platform's censorship efforts and to reinstate former President Donald Trump.

The electric vehicle mogul, however, later reneged on the deal, prompting Twitter to sue him to complete the purchase. Musk cited the prevalence of bot accounts on the site as part of his motivation. He then surprised all parties involved with a sudden offer to renew his original bid for the company. A judge has since stayed Twitter's lawsuit until late October to allow the two parties time to complete the purchase.

Some sources have suggested, however, that Musk may be struggling to finance his original bid without selling additional shares of Tesla.