The "if they can nail him" seems like a big if to me.
If it is a scheme and he had no intention of ever actually buying twitter, the government would still have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he did it for this fraudulent reason. Or at least collect enough evidence to make him accept a plea deal for fear he could lose in court.
It would seem to me that him backing out now has a bunch of other very plausible explanations beyond "it was fraud all along", including the one this document states, that twitter breached their agreement by not providing the data he wanted to assess the prevalence of fake account himself. Or even that buying some "media company" is just what billionaires do[1], but him being "eccentric" he went in too hard and fast and is now backing out that he has seen the backslash and/or has done some actual due diligence, which would make him stupid and/or irresponsible but not criminal. All that to me seems like good ways for lawyers to claim there is "reasonable doubt" should he ever get charged with fraud, unless the government would happen to find some "smoking gun" piece of evidence.
And of course it assumes there is actually political will to nail him.
If it is a scheme and he had no intention of ever actually buying twitter, the government would still have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he did it for this fraudulent reason. Or at least collect enough evidence to make him accept a plea deal for fear he could lose in court.
It would seem to me that him backing out now has a bunch of other very plausible explanations beyond "it was fraud all along", including the one this document states, that twitter breached their agreement by not providing the data he wanted to assess the prevalence of fake account himself. Or even that buying some "media company" is just what billionaires do[1], but him being "eccentric" he went in too hard and fast and is now backing out that he has seen the backslash and/or has done some actual due diligence, which would make him stupid and/or irresponsible but not criminal. All that to me seems like good ways for lawyers to claim there is "reasonable doubt" should he ever get charged with fraud, unless the government would happen to find some "smoking gun" piece of evidence.
And of course it assumes there is actually political will to nail him.
[1] https://www.investopedia.com/billionaires-who-bought-publish...